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Amazon to open Dubai office on Jan 1

Amazon Web Services, (AWS) today announced plans to open an office in Dubai, with the support of the Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI), an agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai, to accelerate the rapid adoption of cloud computing in the Middle East. 
The office will open on January 1 and will support organisations of all sizes, from start-ups to government institutions and some of the Middle East's historic and most established enterprises, as they make the transition to the AWS Cloud. The new office provides account managers, solutions architects, partner managers, professional services consultants, support staff, and various other functions, for customers to directly engage with AWS in their local setting and in their language. It is further evidence of the growth of AWS around the world and continued investment in helping organisations everywhere accelerate their move to the cloud.
Middle Eastern organisations were amongst the earliest adopters of cloud services when AWS launched in 2006. Customers are using AWS to run everything from development and test environments to Big Data analytics, from mobile, web and social applications to enterprise business applications and mission critical workloads. AWS counts some of the UAE's most well-known and fastest growing businesses as customers, including Dubizzle, PayFort and Careem, as well as government institutions and some of the largest companies in the Middle East, such as flydubai, Souq.com and Middle East Broadcasting Center.
"Dubai is a global hub for business, and at DED, we are committed to strengthening the investment environment further, and welcoming global companies to expand their presence in the region. Global technology and innovation leaders such as Amazon Web Services will play a key role in supporting future economic growth opportunities in the MENA region. The new AWS offices in Dubai will serve the growing demand for cloud technologies and accelerate the contribution of entrepreneurship and innovation to the UAE economy. We look forward to its positive impact on public and private organizations to drive the transformation towards efficient and innovative digital services as well as accelerate start-up success and SME growth," said Sami Al Qamzi, director general of Dubai Department of Economic Development.
"Organisations from the UAE are using the AWS Cloud to innovate, save substantial costs and operate more securely as they expand their businesses across the Middle East and around the world," said Werner Vogels, CTO and Vice President, Amazon.com. "The decision to open an AWS office in Dubai marks our continued investment in supporting cloud adoption in the region and the appetite from organisations across the Middle East looking to get started with AWS. We are excited to work with even more Middle Eastern businesses and government organisations to help them expand their operations while maintaining industry-leading levels of reliability, privacy, and security." 
"The opening of the AWS MENA office in Dubai further underlines the positive growth environment of Dubai and our ability to attract inward investments. It will drive the adoption of cloud technologies as well as public and private sector innovation and competitiveness," said Fahad Al Gergawi, chief executive officer, Dubai FDI. "It will also lend impetus to the 4th Industrial revolution innovation in Dubai and the UAE, as well strategic initiatives to implement 3D printed buildings, Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles and the world's first Hyperloop system connecting Dubai to Abu Dhabi creating regional and global opportunities for Deep Tech adoption and acceleration."
Enterprises in the media and entertainment space also welcomed the new AWS office. Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC), the largest broadcaster in the UAE and the Middle East, is using AWS to run many of their digital services.  In this context, Joe Igoe MBC's Group Director of Technical Operations, said: "We are building MBC to be the digital broadcaster of the future. We use AWS to help us speed up innovation and rapidly expand into a wider range of digital services. Our commitment is to continue providing our viewers with high-quality unique multimedia experiences, while having the flexibility to scale services efficiently to keep up with audience growth."
Another large company that is welcoming AWS' expansion into UAE is the airline flydubai. As one of the leading airlines in the Middle East, flydubai understands the power cloud computing has to help companies to rapidly expand their businesses. Ramesh Venkat, Chief Informational Officer for flydubai said, "We appreciate the opportunities provided by cloud computing and are pleased to be working with AWS. AWS helps us to look beyond our existing IT infrastructure to deliver a highly available, consistent service to customers."
Young, fast growing companies in the Middle East are also using AWS to rapidly grow their business to serve millions of customers across the region. One of these companies is Careem, the leading ride booking app in the Middle East and North Africa. "We have been using the scalability of AWS to help us to cope with rapid growth since we launched in 2012. After starting with one city, Dubai, we now serve millions of commuters in 43 cities across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. AWS has been key to this rapid growth and with the new AWS office in Dubai, with local staff, we will use their expertise to continue our growth to serve customers around the world," said Magnus Olsson, Co-Founder of Careem.
Online companies in the UAE are also using AWS to transform how they serve their customers and run their business. One such company is Dubizzle, the leading online classifieds service in the Arabic speaking Middle East. Barry Judge, General Manager at Dubizzle said, "AWS has enabled us to rapidly scale our business while maintaining high levels of security and availability for our customers. Having access to the AWS team in our region will help us to continue our rapid growth across the Middle East and North Africa."
AWS also has a growing network of technology and consulting AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners in the Middle East helping customers get the most from the cloud. These partners include global organizations like CSC as well as prominent regional players like Redington. Ramkumar Balakrishnan, President - VAD business at Redington said of the news, "We have chosen to work with AWS so that we can provide our customers with a secure, reliable and flexible platform. Having an AWS team in the region for us to work with is great news and will help us move even more customers to the cloud."
This news comes as Amazon continues its investment in, and expansion, across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2015 Amazon created over 10,000 new jobs in the region. - business@khaleejtimes.com