As part of the Omani government's efforts to tap international investment in the ITC sector, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch a local zone for cloud services and data hosting in Oman. With the signing of the MoU, Oman is the first country in the MENA region to host AWS Local Zone after its launch in the US and other cities in the world. AWS also signed an MoU with Omantel to enhance the latter’s efforts to provide innovative solutions to its subscribers.
The MoUs were signed by Dr Ali bin Amer al Shidhani, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology’s (MTCIT), Wojcic Bagda, Director of the Public Sector in MENA at Amazon Web Services and Talal bin Said al Maamari, CEO of Omantel.
First launched in 2019, AWS had previously concentrated its Local Zone rollout in the US. AWS now has 25 AWS Local Zones worldwide, with announced plans to launch 27 more globally. AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure deployment that place AWS computing, storage, database, and other services near major centres of population, industry, and information technology (IT), allowing them to deploy applications that require latency in the single digits of a millisecond to end users or on-premises data centres.
With the signing of the MoU, the MTCIT aims to attract investments prospects in data centres and cloud services in, support digital transformation and contribute to the growth of the digital economy in the country. Amazon Web Services is one of the largest international companies specialised in data hosting services.
The agreement also aims to provide companies with access to the latest cloud technologies that enable them to continue innovation and digital transformation, which will contribute to Oman's position as a global centre for data and cloud services. Under this cooperation, Amazon will train university students and job seekers who are ITC majors and also provide trainings programmes for start-up companies Dr Al Shidhani said, “The infrastructure in Oman and the extension of submarine cables contribute to supporting the digital economy projects and digital transformation and strengthen Oman’s position as an international hub to host and process data and provide cloud services in the Middle East. Today, we are very happy that we can provide the best cloud computing technologies to different businesses in country, in cooperation with one of the most important companies in the world in this field.
“The Local Zone of Amazon Web Services in Oman will enable local customers to store their data locally and take advantage of fast processing and response. This contributes to increasing local companies' access to advanced technologies and leveraging the full range of cloud services such as analytics, AI, cloud computing applications, machine learning, applications, storage services and others, enabling them to increase the pace of innovation in their business.
Wojcic Bagda, Director of the Public Sector in MENA at Amazon Web Services, said: “We are pleased to launch our new Local Zone in the capital, Muscat, which will provide companies advanced cloud services infrastructure, as well as diverse and complete set of tools, solutions, computing, storage and data hosting services. The new region will contribute to supporting the digital transformation journey of Oman and help achieving its vision for the digital future. This step comes within the framework of our efforts aimed at providing support to our customers in the Sultanate of Oman and enabling them to making the most of our advanced cloud services, as well as allowing local customers to store their data locally and to provide applications and services to their customers with very low response time.”
Talal bin Said al Maamari, CEO of Omantel, explained that the MoU is another important step in the company’s journey towards achieving the goals of digital transformation for its commercial subscribers. ”We are confident that the launch of the Amazon data centre on the local scale will enable us to enhance our offerings of corporate cloud services, including those offered to SMES,” he said.
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