Amazon Web Services announces launch of Athens office

On Friday, Amazon announced the opening of its first office in Athens, Greece.

The office will support organisations of all sizes, including startups, enterprises, and public sector agencies, as they make the transition to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.

The move comes as the government has stepped up efforts to attract foreign investment and draw high tech companies to Greece.

“We have seen increased customer adoption of AWS in the country and decided to open an office in Athens to better support new customers,” Przemek Szuder, the head of AWS operations in central and eastern Europe said in a statement.

No financial details were disclosed.

“We look forward to fostering the country’s pioneering spirit alongside our customers and helping them accelerate their digital transformation and deliver innovative new products and services to Greek customers and citizens,” he added.

AWS already provides cloud computing services to well-known startups and businesses in Greece including Beat, Deepsea Technologies, futurehome.gr, Madinad, Marpoint, Money Market, Orfium, Omilia, Wind Hellas, PAOK FC, and Xrysi Eukairia, as well as Public Sector organisations.

Services cover areas from big data analytics and mobile, web and social media applications to enterprise business applications and the internet of things.

Those looking to join the AWS Greece user group can click here. 

For many years, Amazon Web Services has supported the Greek startup and technology community by bringing programs like AWS Activate and AWS Academy to the country:

• AWS Activate provides startups with the resources they need to get started on AWS – including up to $100,000 (USD) in credits, training, support, as well as contact with incubators, accelerators, and venture capital firms, such as CrowdPolicy, Marathon, MBriyo, Metavallon, MIT EF, National Bank of Greece (NBG), OK!Thess, and Venture Friends.
• AWS Academy helps university students and educators to develop knowledge and skills about AWS cloud computing in order to accelerate cloud-related learning. AWS Academy member institutions in Greece include American College of Thessaloniki, Athens University of Economics and Business, and International Hellenic University.

In October, when Microsoft Corp announced plans to build a data centre hub in Greece, Mitsotakis said the country could become a world cloud computing hub. 

*More on GCT: Microsoft plans to build data centre hub for cloud services in Greece