AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban, Managing Director, META, Google Cloud
Qatar is an important market for Google Cloud and the company is keen to take the lead in building a digitally skilled workforce in Qatar, AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban, Managing Director, META, Google Cloud told The Peninsula.
“Qatar is an important market for us, and that’s why we launched the Google Cloud region in Qatar in partnership with the Qatar Free Zone Authority (QFZA), and that is a testament to our commitment to the country,” AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban said.
Recently, Google Cloud commissioned a research with a third party organisation - Alphabeta, to identify the potential and demonstrate the full economic value of cloud technology in 10 countries across the MENA region - where Qatar was one of the 10 countries researched.
“Among those 10 countries, Qatar is one of the countries with high potential for Google Cloud” said AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban.
Alphabeta’s research findings estimate that in the 10 MENA countries surveyed, as much as $600bn in recurring value could be generated by 2030 through accelerated cloud adoption. The research also revealed that 79 percent of that figure ($600bn) is driven by technologies that help businesses and workers mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.
Also, 56 percent of the $600bn opportunity lies in three sectors that have traditionally lagged behind in digitisation and transformation: Oil & Gas, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure.
Google Cloud deepened its presence in Qatar by announcing a Center of Excellence training facility in June this year.
“In 2019, we announced our expansion plans in Qatar by launching our first cloud region in the Middle East in Doha in partnership with the QFZA. This was subsequently followed by the opening of Google Cloud offices and the Center of Excellence in Qatar in 2021 - enabling us to support our customers in Qatar very closely,” AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban added.
“In addition to launching a cloud region and opening our offices in Qatar, Google Cloud is keen to take the lead in building a digitally skilled workforce in Qatar,” he said.
The Center of Excellence in Qatar opened its virtual doors in June 2021, with the vision to build digital skills for the future - in partnership with QFZA, Ministry of Transportation & Communications and Intel.
The objective of the training facility is to foster innovation in the State of Qatar using the latest technologies and tools offered by Google Cloud.
The training facility provides free, hands-on training in Google tools and technologies for both individuals and businesses seeking to expand their technology skills and succeed in an increasingly digital world.
The Center will also serve as an incubator for high-potential startups and a hub for research to address digital transformation challenges
The Centre of Excellence has received strong response from Qatar.
“In the span of the past three months, 250 people have completed training programs at the Centre of Excellence so far. Our training programs have been running in full capacity as we continue to see very high interest from IT professionals keen to learn more about Cloud and digital transformation in Qatar to sign up for the courses,” AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban explained.
“Google Cloud is committed to investing in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa in several ways that involve infrastructure, people and products. We have been expanding our cloud regions in the Middle East since 2018 as we believe we need to put our trusted infrastructure where our customers are to support them in running their workloads locally,” he added.
The cloud regions will deliver high-performance, low latency, zero emissions, cloud-based services for customers in countries across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa
Google Cloud has partnered with SAP which enables customers to run their SAP workloads on Google Cloud, where they benefit from an expansive and highly secure network with high performance and built-in availability. The Rise with SAP on Google Cloud global partnership commenced in June 2021.
SAP on Google Cloud is a modern infrastructure solution that can scale flexibly and deliver the availability needed for business-critical applications, plus set SAP customers up for innovation as a practice. With this structure, customers will gain agility, increase uptime, and reduce costs.
“By running critical workloads in the cloud, businesses in Qatar can also be better positioned to ensure operational resilience, innovate quickly, activate sustainability commitment,” he added.
The partnership between Google Cloud and SAP provides businesses opportunity to innovate. When SAP workloads are in the Google Cloud, organizations can quickly and easily integrate the Google technologies and products proven to streamline management, accelerate analytics, and automate processes.
“Google Cloud is well known for its unique set of differentiators that set it apart from other cloud providers in the industry, and prompt it to be the cloud provider that customers in the MENA region choose as the partner of their digital transformation journey ” AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban said.
Google Cloud has pioneered the “zero trust” approach thus positioning the high level of security provided as one of its differentiators. Google Cloud’s strength in Data and Analytics is also another important differentiator, as well as being a Multi-Cloud enabling customers to grow and scale their products and services with great flexibility. Additionally, Google Cloud’s unique industry solutions can help customers improve efficiency and agility, reduce cost, participate in new business models, and capture new market opportunities
Customers with sustainability plans opt for Google Cloud because it is the cleanest Cloud in the industry.
“We are seeing a rise in the number of customers who want to support a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable world, and are adopting measures ( tools, solutions, technologies) to reduce their environmental impact (CO2 emissions) and operate on carbon free energy,” he added.
“We are also seeing an increase in customers opting for a Cloud service that aligns with their organisational goals in being sustainable and energy efficient. This is one of the many reasons why customers choose Google Cloud- as we operate the cleanest cloud in the industry”
Google Cloud operates the cleanest cloud in the industry; which means that it matches 100 percent of its electricity consumption with renewable energy purchases on an annual and global basis. In 2007, it was the first major company to become carbon neutral and it plans to become carbon negative by 2030.
By working with governments and businesses in this region, we make sure our customers can leverage Google Cloud’s technology and information to help build their own climate action plans.
“When the previously announced regions in Qatar and Saudi Arabia are active, they will not only serve as an innovation driver for the region, but they will continue our commitment to sustainability as our data centers are twice as energy-efficient as an average enterprise data centre,” he added.
