Google targets Qatar’s workforce, especially IT professionals, as part of its expansion plan in the region, an official from the tech giant told Doha News.

Google Cloud is “keen to take the lead in building a digitally skilled workforce in Qatar,” the company said in an interview with Doha News, just months after launching a centre in Doha.

In June of this year, Google opened its Center of Excellence in Qatar in partnership with Qatar Free Zone Authority (QFZA), Ministry of Transportation & Communications and Intel.

In an interview with Doha News, Google Cloud Managing Director in Turkey, Middle East and Africa region AbdulRahman Al Thehaiban, said the tech firm aims to “foster innovation in the State of Qatar using the latest technologies and tools offered by Google.”

He added that “the training facility provides free, hands-on training in Google tools and technologies for both individuals and businesses seeking to expand their technology skills and succeed in an increasingly digital world.”

In collaboration with strategic economic consultancy company, Alphabeta, Google Cloud has recently conducted research to determine cloud technology’s potential and full economic value in 10 countries across the MENA region, including Qatar.

“Alphabeta’s research findings estimate that in the 10 MENA countries surveyed, as much as 600 billion USD in recurring value could be generated by 2030 through accelerated cloud adoption,” said Al Thehaiban.

“Google Cloud is committed to investing in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa in several ways that involve infrastructure, people and products,” he added.

“We have been expanding our cloud regions in the Middle East since 2018 as we believe we need to put our trusted infrastructure where our customers are to support them in running their workloads locally.”

Recently, Google Cloud also partnered with SAP to enable users to run their SAP workloads on the cloud and benefit from an expansive and highly secure network with high performance and built-in availability, Al Thehaiban said.

“SAP on Google Cloud is a modern infrastructure solution that can scale flexibly and deliver the availability needed for business-critical applications, plus set SAP customers up for innovation as a practice,” he explained.

“By running critical workloads in the cloud, businesses in Qatar can also be better positioned to ensure operational resilience, innovate quickly, activate sustainability commitments,” he added.

In the past three months, Al Thehaiban said some 250 people had completed training programmes at the COE. “Our training programmes have been running in full capacity as we continue to see very high interest from IT professionals in Qatar to sign up for the courses.”

Read also: Google opens technology training office in Qatar to boost innovation

In addition, Google Cloud has been keen on contributing to global efforts to sustainability through purchasing renewable energy and achieving carbon neutrality in 2007 to become the first major company to do so.

“By working with governments and businesses in this region, we make sure our customers can leverage Google Cloud’s technology and information to help build their climate action plans,” Al Thehaiban said.

“When the previously announced regions in Qatar and Saudi Arabia are active, they will not only serve as an innovation driver for the region, but they will continue our commitment to sustainability. Our data centres are twice as energy-efficient as an average enterprise data centre,” he added.