Amazon Web Services to set up new Dubai office

Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, is looking to ramp up its client base in the Middle East from its new office in Dubai.

The Seattle-based company will open the office on January 1 with support from the Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI), a unit of the Dubai Department of Economic Development.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) expects to grab clients including start-ups and government agencies besides Middle East’s private enterprises from its new premises.

The technology company is not the first multinational to tap into the cloud-computing market in Middle East. Last year, Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of China’s Alibaba Group, set up a joint venture in Dubai with Meeras called YVOLV.

Cloud traffic in Middle East and Africa (MEA) is expected to quadruple by the end of 2019 with the region having the highest cloud traffic growth rate at 41 per cent by 2019, according to the Cisco Global Cloud Index 2014-2019, released in March. Cisco also provides cloud-computing services.

In MEA, cloud data centre traffic is expected to comprise 86 per cent of the total data centre traffic by 2019, up from 61 per cent in 2014, it said.

“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 … as well as accelerate start-up success and SME growth,” said Sami Al Qamzi, the director general of Dubai Department of Economic Development.

Launched in 2006, AWS provides services such as Big Data analytics, mobile, web and social applications as well as enterprise business applications. Its local customers include online classifieds portal Dubizzle, payments website PayFort and car booking website Careem, government institutions, budget airline flydubai, Souq.com and Middle East Broadcasting Centre.

The new AWS investment “will also lend impetus to the fourth industrial revolution innovation in Dubai and the UAE, as well as strategic initiatives to implement 3D printed buildings, robotics, autonomous [driverless] vehicles and the world’s first Hyperloop system connecting Dubai to Abu Dhabi”, said Fahad Al Gergawi, the chief executive of Dubai FDI.

Last month, Bloomberg reported that Amazon.com is considering a US$1 billion takeover of Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com.

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