"The adoption of cloud in Argentina accelerates strongly"

What does "startup" have in common as Etermax creator of the famous game "cuestiondos"; Banco Industrial ; the retail chain Frávega ; the electric generator Pampa Energía ; the "fintech" Uala and the four "unicorns" of Argentina Free Mercado Despegar Globant and OLX ?

The Answer Is Amazon Web Services ( AWS ), the giant division of cloud computing founded and led by the American billionaire Jeff Bezos ] which should develop in Argentina where it has already opened a local office

In June it took place in the hotel Hilton in Buenos Aires the days AWS Cloud Experience where more than a thousand Argentine IT entrepreneurs and technicians participated

As part of this event, iProfesional interviewed the Brazilian Marcos Grilanda Regional Director of AWS, who explained the panorama of the business in Argentina and in the region. 9659003] Although it opened a local office only in April, AWS has been serving Argentine companies for more than eight years, with customers from all vertical sectors of the market, from large companies to startups and startups.

Last year, two commercial companies were registered in Argentina, Amazon Data Services and Amazon Web Services in the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ ).

the third of the company charged 17.400 million dollars in 2017, 42% more than the previous year. This is a separate company from the Amazon retail area, for which the company is much better known.

AWS is a segment-oriented tool B2B (business to business), which provides digital services, cloud storage and data management, IT infrastructure and other tools for businesses and the sector public.

In the interview, iProfesional consulted Grilanda about possible versions of investments in infrastructure in Argentina, for which he is competing with Chile.

The senior regional leader responded with the "cbadette" set, as it is said in the journalistic jargon (although this support is almost no longer used today): " These are We do not comment on the rumors . "

-What evaluation do you make of this edition of AWS Cloud Experience in Argentina?
-We are very happy. We could not be happier for everything that happens. It was the third annual event, before and called Summit, now Cloud Experiences.

For the second year, we divided it into two parts. In the morning we did something more executive with different trends, different companies, how the market is doing.

Some IDC badysts presented the outlook for the Argentine market, it was the morning. In the afternoon, a lecture of "keynotes" of an hour and a half, then twelve technical sessions. The intention is to be a technical event, to bring knowledge to people.

We are very happy, more than a thousand people, the very great interest not only of customers but also of our business partners, many of whom as sponsors. This is an important indicator of how they are considering business opportunities, how they can do business with the cloud.

Important partners such as BGH, Rackspace, Edrans, and even new partners who come from outside as Scada as since last year is in Argentina.

For example, a partner who implemented SAP in Pampa Energía, who was one of the clients that was a reference case today.

– What are the trends observed in the cloud computing industry in Argentina?
– Strong growth. Because? Because it's a great solution for various economic reasons. You pay for what you use, while you use it, and in a flexible and flexible manner, knowing that your costs will be reduced over time. In 12 years we have reduced the price 65 times.

This is a great opportunity. Today, we see companies of all segments and sizes accelerating their adoption. "Startups" like Etermax, who do everything in the cloud; Uala, who is a fintech, who uses and accelerates adoption, at companies such as Pampa Energía, Diarco, Frávega, Banco Industrial, which are much more robust companies that speed up adoption.

Also to governmental and educational organizations such as ITBA. We are seeing in all business sectors that it is growing. The adoption of the cloud in Argentina is accelerating sharply.

– In which industries do AWS customers embrace cloud computing?
– We are specifically studying societies that are setting up a critical mission. Banco Industrial has entered into an agreement with Mercado Libre so that they can invest in Banco Industrial with their accounts. These are cases of critical application.

The case of Pampa Energía is SAP, an ERP, a critical application. In the case of Frávega, it's its "e-commerce", its back-office system, the big data and the security problems, we see an acceleration of the adoption of the cloud in the Workflow and critical loads. In the event), we shared experiences of what we see around Latin America from what to consider. We talk a lot about the importance of knowledge, that people are experiencing cloud computing solutions.

In this sense, our role in an event like this is to have our training equipment in this country. We have trainers who can provide local Amazon Web Services training, with local billing, often co-invested to increase this knowledge.

We talked about the importance of cloud security and maintaining security standards. in that, from "firewall" solutions for DDOS attacks, encryption, governance and control, which can be taken in the cloud, even systems of badysis and certification. We have more than 50, including the law on the protection of personal data of the PDPA.

The "feedback" from our customers is that they feel very supported by us, they feel very supported from a technical point of view, how they should make solutions.

For example, financial market clients who have to present their projects. We help them with the compliance, governance and security part so that they can do it.

Another example: the case of introducing an ERP in the cloud, such as SAP. We have SAP specialists who can support them. Customers who want to realize a Big Data, such as Cencosud, and we support them in the realization of this transformation project.

Many descend from their transformation strategy to the execution of this transformation and we support them on how to do it

– How is Argentina it different from others? Latin American country where AWS operates?
-There is a very important technical quality. And there is a very important business spirit. We see unicorns, which are a great example when we take companies like Globant that is a partner of us, Mercado Libre, OLX, Despegar, the cuatros are in AWS.

Globant is a super integrator and business partner of us. We see a strong entrepreneurial spirit, which wants to be global. And being global based on a company like AWS is much easier, because you can choose where to place your information.

For example, an Argentinean startup like Etermax who has his game Asked, who told us: "I put my data as close to my client as if the customer is in Europe, I will put them there, if I have them in the United States, I will put them there. "This allows companies to be global. Another example: OLX uses Amazon for 16 countries. These questions are different here (in Argentina).

– Offices opened in April in Argentina. How is the hiring of workers?
-We opened the offices in April, although that does not mean that our business started here in April. We have customers here eight years ago.

The intention is to be closer to our customers, to provide them with better support and to provide them with business partners. We open a full office. This is not a sales representation. We have sales, solution architects, service professionals, training, "corporate" support, in charge of our business partners, the government. It's a complete office.

We have already hired a large number of people and we continue to do so. We still have open positions in http://jobs.amazon.com and the country is chosen, by the function you can choose anywhere in the world.

– How many people did they hire?
-We continue to hire, but we do not detail for each office, I can say that of the three offices we opened recently, Colombia, Chile and Argentina, we have already moved the Colombian office and that in Chile, because they are growing fast

This growth is not just about the number of people but also the need to serve the customer. As we have more demand, we increase the number of employees.

In July 2017, an agreement was signed with the Argentine government to test two "datasets" of government data (more information in this iProfesional note). How is this test going?

-We are going from the front. The vice president of AWS Global Teresa Carlson was present, following these agreements signed last year. Also an agreement was signed with a university (Siglo XXI University) to bring knowledge. It's part of this agreement. We continue to invest in startups with credits, technical and commercial support, with programs in startups that can access up to $ 100,000 in credit.

We continue to educate and inform government entities about what can be done. We work closely with them, on how safe it is to be in the cloud, how they can deliver benefits to people with cloud services. We see a very interesting predisposition.