Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 101 | Page 65

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud

AWS to launch infrastructure region in Saudi Arabia in 2026

Amazon Web Services , announced it will launch an AWS infrastructure Region in the Saudi Arabia in 2026 . The new AWS Region will give developers , startups , entrepreneurs , and enterprises , as well as healthcare , education , gaming , and nonprofit organisations , greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from data centres located in the Saudi Arabia , ensuring that customers who want to keep their content in-country can do so .

As part of its long-term commitment , AWS is planning to invest more than $ 5.3 billion , approx . 19.88 billion Saudi riyal in the Saudi Arabia .
The new AWS Region will consist of three Availability Zones at launch , adding to the existing 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions globally .
With the announcement , AWS has plans to launch 18 more Availability Zones and six more AWS Regions in Malaysia , Mexico , New Zealand , Saudi Arabia , Thailand , and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud .
AWS is launching a new upskilling programme , AWS Saudi Arabia Women ' s Skills Initiative , in partnership with Skillsoft Global Knowledge . AWS will train up to 4,000 women on AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials , at no charge , through classroom trainings with AWS-certified professionals . This initiative is designed to help women jumpstart a career in cloud computing .
In addition , AWS will continue to invest in upskilling students , local developers and technical professionals , nontechnical professionals , and the next generation of IT providers in the Saudi Arabia through offerings such as AWS Academy , AWS Educate , AWS re , Start , and AWS Skill Builder . These offerings help learners of all backgrounds and experiences prepare for careers in the cloud .
From higher education courses to fulltime workforce development programs to interactive , game-based learning content ,
AWS Training and Certification provides individuals with training in the ways they like to learn .
AWS will establish two new innovation centres and provide startups in the Middle East and North Africa with technical mentorship and trainings on AWS technologies such as AI and ML .
AWS will also make grants available to fund graduate student research and provide free AWS Skill Builder subscriptions for up to 4,000 individuals working for small and medium enterprises established in the Saudi Arabia .
AWS Skill Builder is a digital learning centre with more than 600 free courses in up to 14 languages , and covering more than 30 AWS services from foundational to advanced levels . By expanding AWS ’ s commitment to free digital training , AWS will help accelerate the number of diverse candidates who enter the talent pipeline . p
AWS Regions consist of Availability Zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations .
Availability Zones are located far enough from each other to support customers ’ business continuity , but near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones .
Each Availability Zone has independent power , cooling , and physical security and is connected through redundant , ultra-lowlatency networks . AWS customers focused on high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault tolerance .
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