KACST signs deal to help emerging technology companies

Nawaf A. Al-Sahhaf, CEO of the Badir Program.

RIYADH: The Badir Program for Technology Incubators and Accelerators at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) has signed a bilateral cooperation agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon Global.
The objective behind the accord is to help the Kingdom’s emerging technology companies improve their performance using innovative cloud technologies and solutions provided by AWS’ on-demand computing platform.
AWS provides low-cost cloud infrastructure to businesses, government organizations and owners of emerging business in 190 countries across the world.
AWS will allow companies to take advantage of Amazon’s expertise and economies of scale to receive the needed resources and achieve desired results at a faster pace.
Nawaf A. Al-Sahhaf, CEO of the 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.
“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,” he 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, he said.
“It will help 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.”
According to Al-Sahhaf, 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.”
The CEO confirmed that many organizations in the region have already started witnessing the results of using cloud technologies, after having seen improvements in growth and customer service.
He said incubated companies at Badir can now benefit from these advanced services which provide new and emerging companies a chance to expand their businesses in target markets.
Under the agreement, incubated companies at Badir will receive free Amazon cloud services. The companies will be eligible for a promotional credit of $5,000 valid for two years and free use of AWS basics and professional technical accreditation courses.
Additionally, they will be provided with 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.
A package of resources for emerging companies, including AWS modules, training and providing developers with support and a forum for the technical community, will also be provided.