Dubai: In a boost to the tech concentration in Saudi Arabia, Zoom and Amazon announced their expansion and investment plans in the Kingdom this week.
The announcements are in line with the Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to pave the way in digital transformation with the highest levels of security and resilience available.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud division of Amazon, announced its intention to invest $5.3 billion (Dh19.4 billion) to establish data centres in Saudi Arabia. Zoom announced three new services being rolled out in the Kingdom including Zoom AI companion, Zoom Phone, and Zoom Contact Centre, along with two more cloud regions in the country to be available this year.
Zoom rolls out new services
In a media release, Aparna Bawa, COO, Zoom said “We recognize the unique opportunity to be part of the bold agenda for social, economic, environmental, and digital transformation reflected in the Vision 2030 program.”
Zoom is currently available in the Kingdom with local data residency to support the region’s digital transformation vision by providing a way for communication and collaboration regardless of location.
Zoom AI Companion is a generative AI assistant that increases productivity and connectivity. It will be available to Zoom customers in Saudi Arabia with no extra costs by the end of July.
Zoom Phone allows Saudi businesses have a single communication platform. It will have a ‘bring your own carrier’ feature allowing customers to have the flexibility to keep their current public switched telephone network (PSTN) service providers by redirecting existing voice circuits to the Zoom Phone cloud. It will be available by the end of October.
Zoom Contact Centre, which will also be available by the end of 2024, will help improve responsiveness and reduce errors by easily connecting front-office and back-office functions through one familiar, single-user interface. The result is a contact centre solution that helps simplify administration, streamline costs, and improve the overall customer experience.
Zoom is also adding two cloud regions to the nation, bringing the total to three Zoom Cloud regions in Saudi Arabia once complete.
Amazon data centres
Amazon’s billion-dollar investment is expected to enable customers execute workloads and securely store customer content within the kingdom, while providing high-speed access to users. The latest AWS infrastructure region, initially featuring three availability zones, will supplement the current 105 availability zones spread across 33 regions worldwide, regional reports said. AWS added that it would also establish two innovation centres in the MENA region to provide technical training on how to use its technologies.
Regional companies such as Saudi Telecom Company, Seera Holding and Mobily, Red Sea Global, Almarai, Almosafer and Jahez, and others use AWS for their workloads.
Growth of tech
The cloud computing market in Saudi Arabia has been steadily growing, with annual spending on public cloud services projected to reach $2.5 billion by 2026, a CAGR of 25 per cent, a report by MIT Sloan Management Review Middle East said.
CBRE data quoted by regional outlets show that the data centre capacity of the three countries is estimated to total around 336 megawatts (MW), and is expected to grow to 707 MW by 2025.
