Badir Program for Technology Incubators and Accelerators at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology has signed a bilateral cooperation agreement with Amazon Global aimed at helping Saudi Arabia's emerging technology companies improve their performance using innovative cloud technologies and solutions from Amazon Web Services (AWS) – a subsidiary of Amazon Global which offers a suite of cloud computing services that make up an on-demand computing platform. AWS provides low-cost cloud infrastructure characterized by reliability and ability to keep up with development, in order to serve hundreds of thousands of businesses, government organizations and emerging business owners in 190 countries around the world. Thanks to these services, businesses no longer need to plan and buy servers and other IT resources weeks or months in advance, since using AWS will allow companies to take advantage of Amazon's expertise and economies of scale to receive the needed resources and achieve the desired results at a faster pace. Under the agreement, incubated companies at Badir will receive free Amazon cloud services. Thereafter, incubated companies will be eligible for a promotional credit of $5,000 valid for two years and a free use of AWS basics and professional technical accreditation courses, in addition to providing around 80 unique references for the use of electronic laboratory services, outstanding works support services from Amazon for a full year, as well as free access to virtual working hours face-to-face with the company's engineers. Besides, a package of resources for emerging companies, including AWS modules, training and providing developers with support and a forum for the technical community, is also provided. Nawaf A. Al-Sahhaf, Chief Executive Officer of Badir Program, described the agreement as an effective model and a culmination of the program's efforts to support entrepreneurs by adopting world-class solutions aimed at enhancing Saudi youth entrepreneurship capabilities and establishing small businesses. He added: "We, at Badir, aim to cooperate with value-added global companies to help emerging technology companies facilitate their businesses and deliver high added value to consumers." Al Sahhaf said the partnership with Amazon Global will add a new dimension to cloud computing services and other related business applications in the field of technology businesses, helping the companies that use them save time, effort and money and achieve positive results in terms of improving performance and customer service or reducing costs, aside from completing works safely. "Cloud computing enables startups to obtain greater operational flexibility by removing the need to create a traditional infrastructure which leads to reduced costs, in addition to enhancing operational integration and providing the highest levels of security for internal office tasks. This creates a balance between companies, regardless of their size, and enables them to obtain the flexibility and technology of large companies to increase or reduce their operations quickly without the need for large capital expenditures," he added. Moreover, the CEO of Badir Program confirmed that many organizations and companies in the region have already started witnessing the results of cloud technologies' use, after having seen improvements in growth and customer service. Therefore, incubated companies in Badir can now benefit from these advanced services which provide new and emerging companies with a chance to continue their growth and expand their businesses in target markets. — SG
