Google Cloud services come to Saudi Aramco
Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco Development Company, a subsidiary of Armaco, has managed to open a cloud solutions approach to develop and expand its business, as part of a plan to promote and consolidate digitalisation in economic activities.
This has come about through a partnership with Google Cloud, which offers "high-performance", low-latency cloud services to Saudi Arabian business customers.
Saudi Arabia has thus been added to Google Cloud Platform's global network of regions, as part of a "strategic partnership" agreement reportedly signed recently between Aramco and Google Cloud. The partnership aims to "develop, distribute and publish advanced digital solutions" for customers working in the oil, gas, utilities, electric power, shipping and manufacturing sectors.
These solutions and services are intended to help both public and private sector companies "future-proof infrastructure" and "increase revenues", while reducing costs and risks, and improving sustainability and operational security.
Aramco's senior vice president of technical services, Ahmad Al Sa'adi, said this "combines industrial heritage, advanced technology and a talented team that will help digitise the public and private sectors in the Kingdom". He said that today "we live in a data-driven world" so "it is essential that companies not only have a secure infrastructure to protect business data, but also the tools that enable them to make the best use of data".
According to Al Sa'adi, "bringing Google Cloud to Saudi Arabia will bring significant benefits, both now and in the future (...) the future of Saudi Arabia's business transformation and growth depends on its ability to successfully leverage cloud services", and he thanks "the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for supporting this initiative".
For his part, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian reiterated his commitment to "helping businesses modernise and accelerate their digital transformations with Google Cloud". He said that with the agreement, "Google Cloud's innovative technology and solutions will be available to global customers and enterprises in Saudi Arabia to enable them to better serve end consumers".
The new partnership also capitalises on the growing demand for cloud services in the Arab country, which has been further fuelled by the increased reliance on online services during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the acceleration of the digital transition. The new service is expected to reach a market opportunity of up to $10 billion by 2030.
