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Amazon Web Services Announces Its Plans To Open A Data Center In UAE

The company is also investing in local education initiatives and training programs to nurture the latent it needs to support its expansion.

Published

5 years ago

June 3, 2021

Joanna Melki

amazon web services announces its plans to open a data center in uae

Determined to strengthen its global infrastructure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon providing on-demand cloud computing platforms, has just announced its plans to open a new data center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the first half of 2022.

AWS currently has 80 Availability Zones across 25 geographic Regions. Once opened, the UAE data center will become AWS’s second Region in the Middle East, along with an existing in Bahrain.

“We are excited to build on the great momentum of cloud adoption in the Middle East by providing more choice for customers in the UAE to run applications and store data locally,” said Peter DeSantis, Senior Vice President of Global Infrastructure at AWS.

In addition to enabling e local customers with data residency requirements to keep their data inside the UAE, the new Region will also ensure low latency across the country when using Amazon’s growing suite of cloud services, which includes everything from storage to computer to analytics.

The UAE has been heavily focusing on becoming a thriving global hub for entrepreneurs and global enterprises alike by promoting technology innovation, and the new AWS Region will put it one step closer to achieving its goal.

Also Read: QFZA Announces Qatar’s First Laptop Manufacturing Facility

“AWS’s expansion into the UAE is a testament to our rapidly growing innovation ecosystem that will benefit from access to the world’s leading cloud platform and its advanced technologies and solutions,” said His Excellency Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.

In the near future, Amazon Web Services would like to launch 18 more Availability Zones and six more AWS Regions in Australia, India, Indonesia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. The company is also investing in local education initiatives and training programs to nurture the latent it needs to support its expansion.

Related Topics:Amazon United Arab Emirates

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Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

7 days ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

Also Read: Shokz OpenFit Pro Review: Open-Ear Audio Finally Grows Up

For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.