Google switches on cloud region in Saudi Arabia

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Search engine giant Google has officially activated its newest cloud region in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, making the kingdom part of its 39 regions around the world.

Launched in 2008, Google Cloud offers computing services, data storage, data analytics, machine learning and management tool offerings. 

Google Cloud’s impact on digital economy

Research commissioned by Google has indicated that the impact of the cloud economy will be $109bn in Saudi Arabia and that the sector has the potential to add 148,600 jobs by 2030.

“Our cloud will open the horizon for new digital transformation opportunities and it will position the kingdom to be the hub of the region,” said Bader Almadi, country general manager for Saudi Arabia’s Google Cloud, in a live streamed event from the kingdom. 

“Our cloud meets the sovereignty, privacy needs of the region in terms of regulation,” Almadedi added. 

Meanwhile, Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, also spoke at the event, highlighting how Google has worked hard to comply with Saudi Arabia’s regulatory and security requirements.

“Today is the culmination of work from so many people. We are proud to introduce our cloud technology to the kingdom, to all the companies, to people who want to learn about cloud computing, to startups and the youth,” said Kurian.

“We wanted to take all the technology that Google was inventing and make it available to all organisations,” Kurian added.

Other speakers at the Google Cloud launch event included the CEO of Aramco, Amin H Nasser, and SAP EMEA South Regional President Manos Raptopoulos. 

Raptopoulos said that SAP will be hosting its workloads on the new Saudi Arabia Google Cloud region and that its flagship technology, Rise, will also be available on the servers from today.

The push by Google into Saudi Arabia, though, could indicate a greater play to expand market share and capitalise on the Kingdom’s recent years of strong economic growth. Last year, Saudi Arabia’s GDP expanded by 8.7 per cent, according to officials in that country.

Google is also regarded as one of the three big players in the cloud space.

Recent market estimates from AAG have indicated that AWS had the largest market share of cloud infrastructure services in 2022 at 33 per cent, followed by Microsoft Azure (22 per cent) and Google (10 per cent).