AWS Launches Region in the United Arab Emirates

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. firm (NASDAQ: AMZN), at the moment introduced the launch of its second Region in the Middle East, the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region. Starting at the moment, builders, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, in addition to authorities, schooling, and nonprofit organizations may have even larger selection for operating their functions and serving finish customers from information facilities positioned in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), utilizing superior AWS applied sciences to drive innovation. AWS estimates that its projected spending on the development and operation of the new Region will help a median of almost 6,000 full-time jobs yearly at exterior distributors, with a deliberate $5 billion (AED 20 billion) funding in the native economy by 2036. The AWS Middle East (UAE) Region may even add an estimated $11 billion (AED 41 billion) over the subsequent 15 years to the UAE’s gross home product (GDP). For extra details about AWS Global Infrastructure, go to aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure.

“AWS is committed to helping customers in the UAE deploy the most advanced cloud technologies and achieve the highest levels of security, availability, and resiliency,” mentioned Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice chairman of Infrastructure Services at AWS. “With the launch of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region, we are making it possible for even more customers to harness the power of the cloud to drive innovation across the UAE, while also investing in the local economy through job creation, training for highly sought-after technology skills, and education resources to further advance the UAE’s strategic priorities.”

“The opening of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region is a significant milestone for Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a whole, reflecting our efforts to generate opportunities for all,” mentioned His Excellency Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development. “It strengthens Abu Dhabi’s commitment to positioning itself as a leading digital economy by leveraging cutting-edge technology to support business growth. The enhanced cloud capabilities enabled by AWS are expected to generate significant advantages and efficiencies that can propel businesses to success and realize major economic benefits for the country.”

With the launch of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region, AWS has 87 Availability Zones throughout 27 geographic areas, with introduced plans to launch 21 extra Availability Zones and 7 extra AWS Regions in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, New Zealand, Spain, and Switzerland. AWS Regions are composed of Availability Zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic areas. The AWS Middle East (UAE) Region consists of three Availability Zones and joins the current AWS Middle East (Bahrain) Region, which opened in July 2019. Availability Zones are positioned far sufficient from one another to help clients’ business continuity, however close to sufficient to supply low latency for high-availability functions that use a number of Availability Zones. Each Availability Zone has unbiased energy, cooling, and bodily safety and is related by redundant, ultra-low latency networks. AWS clients targeted on high-availability can design their functions to run in a number of Availability Zones to attain even larger fault tolerance. The launch of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region will allow native clients with information residency necessities to retailer information securely in the UAE, whereas offering clients with even decrease latency throughout the nation.

AWS is planning to take a position an estimated $5 billion (AED 20 billion) in the UAE over the subsequent 15 years by the new AWS Middle East (UAE) Region, which incorporates capital expenditures on the development of information facilities, operational bills associated to ongoing utilities and facility prices, and purchases of products and providers from regional companies. The funding can be estimated to help a median of almost 6,000 jobs yearly throughout this time. These jobs can be a part of the AWS provide chain in the UAE, together with development, facility upkeep, engineering, telecommunications, and jobs inside the nation’s broader economy. The development and operation of AWS infrastructure in the UAE can be estimated so as to add an estimated $11 billion (AED 41 billion) to the UAE’s GDP over the subsequent 15 years.

“Abu Dhabi aims to enable transformative technology that delivers opportunities for businesses and residents alike,” mentioned Eng. Abdulla Abdul Aziz AlShamsi, performing director normal of the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO). “Smart infrastructure is powering the thriving private and public sectors by opening new economic possibilities, fostering inclusive growth, and creating opportunities for collaboration across our innovation ecosystem. At ADIO, we are contributing to this through many valuable ecosystem-enabling partnerships that support Abu Dhabi’s position as a leader in the region’s digital revolution. The AWS Middle East (UAE) Region is a welcome addition to the country’s innovation ecosystem, helping to build vital capabilities for all.”

Customers and AWS Partners welcome the information of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region

Organizations in the UAE are amongst thousands and thousands of lively clients utilizing AWS each month in greater than 190 nations round the world, together with tens of hundreds of consumers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). These clients leverage AWS to speed up innovation, improve agility, and drive price financial savings. Enterprises which have chosen AWS to grow to be extra agile and revolutionary embody Al Ghurair Investments, Al Tayer Group, Aramex, Axiom Telecom, Flydubai, GIG Gulf (beforehand AXA Gulf), Gulf News, OSN, Shahid, Seera Group, Virgin Middle East, and plenty of extra. MENA public sector organizations are utilizing AWS to drive price financial savings, speed up innovation, and higher serve the residents of the area. Examples of those organizations embody Dubai Expo 2020, Egypt Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of Bahrain’s Ministries, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, and the University of Bahrain. MENA startups constructing their companies on prime of AWS to scale quickly and broaden round the world embody Alef Education, Anghami, Careem, Dubizzle, EKar, Fetchr, Haraj, Maestro Pizza, Mawdoo3.com, Property Finder, Sarwa, Souqalmal, StarzPlay, and Yallacompare.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) is the largest Islamic financial institution in the UAE, and second largest Islamic financial institution in the world. “Dubai Islamic Bank has for a few years championed the use of know-how as a way for empowering clients and simplifying the total banking expertise,” mentioned Obaid Al Shamsi, chief working officer at DIB. “We pride ourselves in being a truly digitally intelligent bank that has been at the forefront of innovation and transformation, supporting the Nation’s leadership in realizing their vision for the UAE’s digital economy and establishing Dubai as a thriving hub of the global Islamic economy. Our digital transformation strategy is formulated with a clear focus on dissecting each step of the customer journey and removing any pain points for the customer. We’ve achieved this by taking a customer-centric approach and delivering convenient, fast and pleasant banking services within minutes rather than days. In line with this, we welcome the launch of the AWS Region in the UAE, which we expect will increase our agility and help accelerate the rate of innovation and experimentation with the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.”

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) is answerable for the implementation of well being care coverage in all areas of technical, materials, and coordination with the Ministries of State, and cooperation with the personal sector in well being domestically and internationally. Earlier this yr, AWS signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MoHAP. “We welcome the launch of an AWS Region in UAE and look forward to the implementation of our agreement with AWS to assist MoHAP in modernizing the patient experience,” mentioned Ali Juma AlAjme, director of the Digital Health Department at MoHAP. “Having the AWS Region in the UAE will allow us to accelerate our digital transformation program and build skills and capabilities, driving clinical and technological innovation and further strengthening the country’s position as a global health care leader. Our collaboration with AWS enables us to connect 100% of care providers—public and private—to further enhance our data strategy in support of predictive and population health programs. We are working to identify current data sources, flows, and targeted outcomes from a data-driven approach to decision making.”

Al Ghurair Investment (AGI) is one in every of the largest diversified household business teams in the Middle East, with six key business models together with meals and sources, properties, development and providers, vitality, transportation, and ventures. In 2020, AGI started a Group-wide transformation journey, constructing on its larger than 60 yr legacy to reshape for the future. A basic a part of this business-driven transformation was to strengthen the firm’s digital ecosystem, harnessing the energy of AWS to drive info know-how (IT) transformation and infrastructure modernization. “AWS is a strategic partner in our IT transformation journey as our preferred cloud service provider for all of the advanced digital technology stack,” mentioned Marinda Sheahan, international vice chairman, IT at AGI. “We selected AWS for its rich data and analysis capabilities, and now our journey to become a data-driven organization is well underway. This will result in a cost savings of up to 25% over a period of three years. The new AWS Region in the UAE will accelerate our own objectives to become an agile, innovative, and flexible IT organization, in alignment with our Group’s purpose of ‘Enhancing Life.’”

GEMS Education is one in every of the largest personal Ok–12 operators in the world, with greater than 60 years of expertise. In the MENA area, it owns and operates greater than 60 faculties, serving greater than 130,000 college students. “We have developed an all-in-one integrated edtech platform called LearnOS on AWS,” mentioned Krishnan Gopi, group chief disruption officer at GEMS Education. “We are also building ANET, an advanced AI neural engine for education. The platform uses a host of advanced cloud technologies from AWS, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to support teachers and create personalized learning experiences. We have automated student attendance using Amazon Rekognition, reducing 93% of the time spent in marking attendance. We have also developed an automated quiz generation and assessment platform using Amazon EC2 and Amazon SageMaker. The algorithms predict student year-end performance with up to 95% accuracy and recommends personalized reading materials. Having local data centers from AWS will enable us to accelerate our innovation while meeting requirements to host data in country.”

Alef Education is all in on AWS with clients in the U.S., UAE, and Indonesia, serving greater than 4,000 faculties, 690,000 college students, and 40,000 lecturers. Alef Education is a number one international schooling know-how firm that has developed the Alef Platform, which helps a set of digital services and products to help college students’ studying, on AWS. The platform makes use of AWS synthetic intelligence providers to personalize lesson plans and supply Ok-12 lecturers with real-time suggestions on college students’ progress. “Leveraging AWS has brought us significant benefits in identifying and resolving some of the most critical issues in the education sector, as well as equipping the future generations to succeed in a world driven by technology,” mentioned Geoffrey Alphonso, CEO at Alef Education. “AWS’s cloud computing technologies and features have allowed us to innovate faster, while also reducing IT costs by 30%, warehouse expenses by 50%, and video stream size by 300%. Furthermore, the new UAE data centers will aid us in better supporting our local customers, including the Ministry of Education, by meeting data residency requirements.”

YAP is a fast-growing regional monetary tremendous app that focuses on bettering the digital banking expertise. It capabilities as an unbiased app with no bodily branches, making it the first of its variety in the UAE. “AWS has helped fuel our growth and enabled us to scale to become a leading regional fintech,” mentioned Marwan Hachem, founder and CEO at YAP. “AWS gives us the elasticity to control costs as our user base grows to more than 130,000 users, and allows us to scale fast as we launch new markets, reducing the time to build and deploy complete infrastructure from months to weeks. As the UAE continues to pave the way for innovative companies like YAP, the new AWS Region will be a huge benefit for the expansion of the technology sector in the Middle East.”

Middle East-based AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners additionally welcomed the information of the launch of the AWS Middle East (UAE) Region.

The AWS Partner Network (APN) consists of tens of hundreds of unbiased software program distributors (ISVs) and programs integrators (SIs) round the world. AWS Partners construct revolutionary options and providers on AWS, and the APN helps by offering business, technical, advertising and marketing, and go-to-market help to clients. AWS SIs, consulting companions, and ISVs assist enterprise and public sector clients migrate to AWS, deploy mission-critical functions, and supply a full vary of monitoring, automation, and administration providers for purchasers’ cloud environments. Examples of AWS Middle East Partners embody Accenture, Bespin Global MEA, Citrus Consulting, Cloud4c, Crayon, Deloitte, Du, Etisalat, F5, Integra Technologies, Keplerworx, Palo Alto Networks, Rackspace, Redington, SAP, Splunk, TCS, Trend Micro, VMWare, Wipro, and Zero&One. For the full checklist of AWS Partners, go to aws.amazon.com/companions.

AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner Bespin Global–Middle East and Africa (MEA) is a number one cloud consultancy and administration agency serving to companies speed up cloud adoption on AWS. Bespin Global gives cutting-edge options and consulting experience, delivering service-level pushed outcomes. “Today’s launch of the AWS Region in the UAE is a key moment for the acceleration of digital transformation for our customers, particularly those in highly regulated industries such as government, financial services, energy, and health care,” mentioned Mouteih Chaghlil, CEO of Middle East & Africa at Bespin Global. “Through our strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), we have been working closely with government entities to help them leverage the new AWS Region, including compliance with data residency requirements. We look forward to working with our customers across all industries to realize the full potential of the new AWS Region through our highly skilled team of cloud experts in Abu Dhabi.”

Zero&One is an AWS Partner serving to organizations with complicated know-how tasks throughout the MENA, specializing in migration and modernization. “Zero&One is growing because of the continued investment of AWS in the Middle East, and today’s launch of the new AWS Region is an important milestone for the industry,” mentioned Ali El Kontar, founder and CEO at Zero&One. “As a company, we have been developing our resources and skill sets in response to the increasing demand for AWS services and recently became an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner. We also developed a strategic partnership with PwC Middle East, bringing together PwC’s expertise in digital consulting and Zero&One’s deep competencies to further empower our clients with comprehensive solutions to transform, manage, and execute cloud strategies and adoption.”

AWS Investment in the UAE

The new AWS Middle East (UAE) Region is the newest in AWS’s ongoing investments in the UAE. In 2018, AWS launched its first Amazon CloudEntrance edge areas in the UAE, providing clients in the UAE entry to Amazon CloudEntrance and Amazon Route 53 providers. Amazon CloudEntrance is a extremely safe and programmable content material supply community that accelerates the supply of information, movies, functions, and utility programming interfaces (APIs) to customers worldwide with low latency and excessive switch speeds. That similar yr, AWS additionally launched AWS Direct Connect areas in the UAE, which allow clients to determine personal connectivity between AWS and their information heart, workplace, or colocation setting. This can scale back community prices, improve bandwidth throughput, and supply a extra constant community expertise. AWS operations technicians and engineers guarantee continued operation of AWS infrastructure.

In 2020, AWS launched AWS Outposts, which affords clients and companions in the UAE entry to the similar AWS infrastructure, AWS providers, APIs, and instruments in just about any information heart, colocation house, or on-premises facility for a really constant hybrid expertise. Today, AWS Outposts allows clients and companions to run key AWS providers in their very own information facilities, whereas connecting to a broader vary of providers in the AWS Global Infrastructure.

Commitment to Sustainability

Amazon is dedicated to changing into a extra sustainable business and reaching net-zero carbon throughout its operations by 2040, 10 years forward of the Paris Agreement, as a part of The Climate Pledge. Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge and have become its first signatory in 2019. As a part of its Climate Pledge dedication, Amazon is on a path to energy its operations with 100% renewable vitality by 2025, 5 years forward of the unique 2030 goal. Amazon is the world’s largest company purchaser of renewable vitality, and as of the finish of 2021, reached 85% renewable vitality throughout its business. See Amazon’s public methodology for extra on its method. Organizations that transfer compute workloads to AWS Cloud can profit from the web impact of Amazon’s sustainability efforts to cut back their carbon footprint.

About Amazon Web Services

For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most complete and broadly adopted cloud providing. AWS has been regularly increasing its providers to help just about any cloud workload, and it now has greater than 200 absolutely featured providers for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine studying and synthetic intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cellular, safety, hybrid, digital and augmented actuality (VR and AR), media, and utility growth, deployment, and administration from 87 Availability Zones inside 27 geographic areas, with introduced plans for 21 extra Availability Zones and 7 extra AWS Regions in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, New Zealand, Spain, and Switzerland. Millions of consumers—together with the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and main authorities companies—belief AWS to energy their infrastructure, grow to be extra agile, and decrease prices. To be taught extra about AWS, go to aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon

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