>> Live from Bahrain, it's theCUBE. Covering AWS Summit Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Hey, welcome back everyone, we're here live in Bahrain in the Middle East. This is theCUBE's exclusive coverage, here for the first time, covering Amazon Web Services, AWS' Public Sector, and the breaking news around their new region that they announced a while ago, going to be deployed here in the early 2019 time frame. An Amazon region really is the power source of digital. It has a track record of creating so much value and innovation. And I'm here with Teresa Carlson, who's the head-- she's the chief of public sectors, she's the head of Amazon Web Services' Public Sector globally, except for China but that's a different territory. Teresa Carlson, it's great to see you. >> It's so great to have you here with us, oh my goodness. >> So I got to say, you told me a few years ago we're going to really go international, we're doubling down outside North America, we're going to have regions, Andy Jassy, the CEO of AWS, said the same. This is the strategy of Amazon. But the Middle East was your baby. This was something that you did spend a lot of time on, and a lot of decisions. Everyone wants to know why Bahrain? Why did you choose this region? And what do you see happening? And how's it going? >> Well, you know, it's interesting because, well I have had a lot of people say why Bahrain as the first region that you've put in the Middle East? Because it doesn't seem like the first place somebody would choose. And the thing that kept coming back to me is Jeff has always said we're willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time. And I think this is probably one of those times where people just didn't quite understand why Bahrain. Well, here's why. I met the Crown Prince, we talked about digital innovation and the economy here and he immediately got that they needed to go through a digital transformation. They are not a country that has a lot of oil. They are a smaller country and they really are a working class country that is looking for how do they have sustainment? And they've done things in the past around financial services that really got them going. They would spear head things. And I think he saw the opportunity that this could help them jump-start the economy and they could kind of be a hub for innovation. So they created the right policies around Cloud First. They created the right telecommunications policy. They were one of the first to deregulate. They had good pricing for utilities. They were friendly toward businesses. And they had a culture that we felt could fit well with us, as well as our partner community. >> Couple of observations, being the first time here, so thank you for inviting us and allowing us to cover you here. One, they're a learning culture, they speak multiple languages, why not add programming to it, software? Two, they like to move fast. They just built a track in 14 months, they're not afraid to go faster. >> They go fast. >> That's Amazon. Amazon, you guys move at a speed of a whole 'nother cadence. And then, my observation again, compared to other areas as I look around is that the percentage of the population of Bahrainians is large, is a lot of people live here, that are native, and they're talented. >> Well, one of the things you said that I think is key is that they move fast, they're used to being frugal on how they do things and they're very scrappy. And that really fits with their culture because, again, they have to do things different than some of the other minimalist countries who are-- they're not quite as rich. But they have this culture of really moving fast and they took down blockers like crazy. I mean, as we came in and were making a decision on-- >> What were some of those blockers? Like, stumbling blocks, are they more hurdles? What were they? >> They were stumbling blocks but they were-- we had to really come in and talk about why telecommunications, policies and pricing had to change because in an old-school model of Telco, there's a lot of big charges. And when you have a digital economy coming in, if you think about, you have a few transactions for a lot of money in an old-school. In a new-school world, you have millions of transactions for a little bit, 'cause you've got to be able to transact a lot, and that's why your telecommunications industry's got to be set up as well as you want it deregulated. They'd already deregulated it so they worked with us to open it up, to set the policies, and now Batelco, who is one of our major telecommunications partners here, is doing manage services on AWS, they've gotten all kinds of people trained. And it's just an example of how they look at an opportunity and say we have got to innovate and make changes if we want to have a sustainment in the 21st century economy. >> And you guys are bringing a lot of goodness to the table, they're quick learners, they're smart, they've got their entrepreneurial vibe. They're not afraid to put some funds of funds together and get some professional investment going on. So that's going to level up the entrepreneurship base. The question is when will the region be ready? How's that going? It's under construction. We've been hearing it's been impacting and, frankly, bringing in to this country an agenda item of sustainability and sustainable energy. Well, why would they need sustainable energy if they've got oil? >> Well they-- (laughs) [John] - Why burn it if you can sell it? That's what the British Prime Minister-- >> Well they do and they've had a new find but I think they have to get to the new oil that they've found but they're not-- I think, what I understand, they're not banking on that, they're going to bank on a digital economy. So they know this is kind of a guaranteed way to really grow what they're doing and bringing out outside others. There's two big elements they're doing. One is they're creating policies for data that allows other countries to put their data here safely and with the right laws. That is game changing. So that's one big thing they're doing. The second thing is they have the spirit of teaching and training so they're getting other countries to come in and talk to them about what they're doing. And remember, John, they're already moving the government to the Cloud and they don't even have their Cloud here yet. So they've done all their homework and they're already moving more work loads into the Cloud that they don't feel need to be here. But they've looked at security design, compliance practices, and they're like, we're moving, we're not waiting. >> They're Cloud First. >> They're Cloud First. >> Okay, so when do you expect the construction to be ready? Ballpark, I know you can't probably give an exact date but when-- >> We expect it'll be ready by Q1 of 2019 and we're excited. It's going to be one of the most innovative regions. And by the way, I dunno if you saw, I had a big star on the map today in my presentation. We have literally, at AWS, had a big hole in the world with no region in the Middle East or Africa, and now we are going to have this region so it is exciting, and I know that the region itself is really anxious to get going. >> Well not only are you an amazing executive, I've seen you work, I've seen what you've done, checking the boxes, doing the hard work, getting down and dirty and doing hustling and scrapping, but you also made some good strategic bets. This one really is successful because I think, two things, you bring a region to the area for AWS but you guys are doing it in a way that's partnering with the government, you're actually-- as industry contributing. I think that's a case there that's going to probably be recognized down the road when people figure that out. But that's going to be a great one. But the cultural win, for you, is pretty amazing and I have to say, yesterday I went to the women breakfast that you hosted and I've never been at a women breakfast, and I've been to a lot of them because I like to be involved, where I got kicked out of a table because they need the space, so it was so crowded. Sorry guys, you're out, I got booted. I didn't leave the room, I had to just move, because they had workshops. Take a minute to explain the women breakfast you had because I think that was extraordinary and a proof point that the narrative of the region, women don't go to school, all this nonsense that's out there, take a minute to clarify this, this is a cultural shift. There might be some cultural things going on. >> Well, the women are here, #SmartIsBeautiful. They are amazing. And they are very educated and in fact, 53% of the government work force here are females at high level jobs too, they're not just low level. And I actually met with the King this week who told me that he was able-- he has the first Supreme Court Justice, that's a female, in the Middle East. And he said it was against culture but he did it because he said this woman was so amazing and she was so talented and she fit the role, she had the job description down. And he said it's gone great, so the women here are smart, they're talented, they're educated, and they actually get degrees in Computer Science. Here in Bahrain, 60% of the Computer Science students are females. Now, what is not happening, is their not always getting out and getting these jobs. And the second thing is, right now, we're still working with them to teach the right skills. A lot of skills are actually outdated tech skills and I know, John, you see this too, even in the US. You have universities that are still teaching the wrong skills for Cloud, so we are working with them at the university and the high school level that actually teach and certify on the right skills. But the women are talented, they're amazing. There are some cultural things that we're going to work together on but there's really no reason we can't have an amazing and talented workforce of women here in the Middle East. >> We had Mohammed on, who's the chief executive of the IGA, the Information e-Government Authority. He told me that any citizen can get a certification for free in this country. >> Yes! Oh my gosh, so I've never seen this. So our partner here, Tamkeen, who's like The Labour Fund, about a year and a half ago, agreed that any citizen that got a certification on AWS, it would be 100% paid for. And then we just announced today that they're actually also going to pay 100% of Bahraini companies that want to move to the Cloud. They're serious about this, they are serious. And they are being a role model and, again John, why are they doing it? They are doing it because they realize that they want to be a true digital economy and grow their businesses here and create new. They got to move faster because they're smaller. They've got to be scrappier, they got to move faster, they got to do things a little bit different. >> The other thing I want to point out, you can't really see it on the camera, but behind us you have, essentially, a mix of commercial and public sector. The show here is so, so crowded, couldn't get into the keynote speech, overflow of room was packed, this is attracting everyone from the Gulf region here. Not just public sector, but commercial businesses. This is not a one time thing, this is a-- the pent-up demand is here. What do you expect is going to happen when the region gets here built out? >> Well, if you look at all the partners around, I mean you have Trend Micro over here, and others, many of them have come because they're excited about us putting a region here. And Andy Jassy and I both have had many of our partners say when are you going to have a region in the Middle East? So we expect a lot more partners are going to come. Just like you they're going to see the value of being here. But, additionally, I don't know what we're going to do for our conference, our summit, because we've already out-grown this space and you're right, we have delegates here from Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, of course Bahrain, Kuwait, the US. So many different groups are being represented here and I think also South Africa, we have some folks from South Africa. >> Well theCUBE is here, we're making great observations and great commentary. I got to say that you're even attracting amazing talent from the US, besides theCUBE. General Keith Alexander was here. >> Yes he was. >> John Wood from Telos, and all these partners, all visionaries who see the opportunity. This is important, you're not being misunderstood by the people who know Amazon. >> No, I agree. And you made a point earlier that I think is important. Even though I'm kind of here for this conference, leading it, this is not a public sector conference, it's a AWS Summit. It has tons of commercial, tons of public sector. The thing that's a little bit different when you get to some of these countries is they are more government lead, so that is the reason it's important to have this relationship with government if you really want to, but you don't want to surprise them. And you want to work with them to help make sure that they and the country are successful. >> Well Teresa, it's been fun to observe and watch your successes continue to raise the bar here in your job. This is a whole 'nother level when you talk about really filling a hole, you see a hole, you fill it. >> Yep, find a whole, fill it (laughs). >> I heard someone say that once in a motivation speech. Oh, that was you, "You see a hole you fill it. "Oh, we got to hole in the Middle East, fill it!" You have a region here, you've got great success in Washington, DC, CIA, other governments. Congratulations, and thanks for all your support-- >> Thank you John for being here, thank you. >> Thank you, live coverage here. We are here in Bahrain in the Middle East of CUBE's first time. I'm John Furrier, your host here, covering the exclusive Amazon Web Services Summit, and covering the historic launch of the new region in the Middle East. This should change the game, this is going to be a digital hub. It's going to have impact to entrepreneurship, economics and society. We'll be covering it at theCUBE. Stay with us for more after this short break. (jubilant music)

(tech music) >> Live, from Bahrain, it's theCUBE. Covering AWS Summit Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Hello, everyone. Welcome back to our live coverage here in Bahrain for theCUBE's exclusive coverage of AWS Summit here in the Middle East in the region. Our first time here, lots of observations, lots of learnings, and also great people we're meeting. I'm John Furrier, your host of theCUBE. Our next guest is Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, who is the Chief Executive of the Information E-Government Authority, also known as IGA. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you very much, thank you for hosting me. >> Saw you last night at dinner. We were talking about all the opportunities. So the first question I have to ask you is, as you guys are bringing in the digital transformation, which is happening, you now have Amazon here with the region, how is that changing things? >> Of course, always we try to innovate, and the technology, if you don't innovate, if you don't make sure that you are ready for the changes coming, it is very difficult. When we announced our first strategy in 2007, we delivered it in 2010 becoming the leader in the region, delivering 200 services over four channels. But as you mentioned, usually in the technology, the longest cycle is the infrastructure and servers and configurations, buying things and configuring. And with the leadership vision of transforming the country the vision 2030, transformations happening in the judicial system and to the commercial legislations and to the customs and to health and education, the pace of change required and the ambition is very much, much higher. And particularly, when you develop something and you were successful. So our leaders say, we are a bit slow. We need to fast things up. So then we looked into the Amazon and the cloud. How it can help us. And usually, in Bahrain, we don't have the luxury of trial and error. Trying things and if it works, you know, try multiple things. So we have to study it well. This is why we looked into the cloud, what it can bring to the country, the agility, the time to market. And when we put the strategy forward, it was a comprehensive one. The leaders decided to go cloud-first policy. Everybody should move. Because that's the way forward, that's the way that the Kingdom can deliver its vision-- >> And the cloud-first decision, when was that made? >> That was last year. And, when it was made, it's not a piece of strategy. You have to look at it in a comprehensive way. >> Yeah. >> You have to look into your laws, legislations, compliance, >> Yeah. >> audits, architectures, unit policies, skills sets available, the procurement process, the tendering process, and you have to review all of that-- >> Yeah. >> and make sure that there is no show blockers or barriers for the implementation. Otherwise, it will take a long time. >> Yeah. (chuckles) >> This is why, in a year's time, we managed to migrate huge workloads to the cloud. >> We were talking last night about how hard it is just to figure out the future, never mind provisioning all the gear you got to do, and the training, and so this cloud-first is very interesting. But I also want to just tell you that we talked about, also, how hard it is. So when I say, oh, go cloud-first, it's so easy! Right? No, it isn't. There's a lot of work involved. >> Yes. >> Take us through some of the things that you guys have done, your learnings prior to cloud-first. And the key learnings now that cloud-first has been under your belt for over a year. >> Of course, always with the governments, the biggest challenge will happen about the security. How I am going to move losing the control, putting my processing and storage outside the government. How I'm going to protect it, somebody else is there. That's the biggest challenge. That's number one. Number two, people doesn't understand, they think it's processing. So okay, I have my processing power, I will save some money, that's not much. >> Yeah. >> But they don't think about the ultimate goal. About the time to market. >> Yeah. >> When you have a new vision, when you have a new service to be delivered, you cannot wait for 18, 24 months for the infrastructure-- >> Yeah. >> Getting there, idle for a couple of years until you know the full utilization of them. So this is why the ultimate goal is much, much bigger. >> Yeah. >> And the thing about the issue, of somebody else, looking into-- >> So speed is critical. >> Yeah. >> And you guys have speed under your belt. You did a Formula One racetrack in what, 14 months I heard, very fast construction. The Amazon region is going up in record time. Is this a cultural thing? Just go fast? People like speed? The need for speed? >> We like that, you know the Formula One, of course that's just part of our DNA. Our leaders always push the citizens. And that's the Bahraini culture. >> Yeah, the other thing, too, about the application, now to get back to our serious conversation, to have innovation, you need to have software development go on in a way that's not the 24-month, oh we built it, and you don't know if you tested it or not. But you got to built the dev-ops model infrastructure as code. How far along are you on the infrastructure as code? Because the developer side is going to be very great. >> [Mohammed Ali Al Qaed] Yeah. >> Amazon's proven that developers love it, easy to get going, lower cost to test, agility, time to market, time to value. The setup for you guys is a little bit different. You've got infrastructure as code-- >> Yeah. >> You're not a startup. But you want to act like one, but what are you going to do for the infrastructure? >> Of course, the infrastructure in terms of processing, that's easy because it's been migrated, most of it's been migrated, our ports, our channels, our mobile channels. >> The networks, you have 5G, do you have 5G here yet? >> We are already experimenting, ready for it. The frequency's already freed up for the telco's to utilize them. It's already there for the 5G. Of course, fiber is everywhere, all the government entities are connected to the fiber. High speed, we have 100-meg, we have a gig, we have 10 gig, we have all kinds of speed available. >> No problem for bandwidth in the country. >> I don't think so. We don't have an issue about the bandwidth. And the processing power, once moved, then the optimization, which already happened. But as you mentioned, coming to the development, we started already, developing into the serverless, using the lamdas, using born-in-the-cloud concepts, that was not there once we started. But now we are already educating and training our employees. >> What's the reaction to it? >> The reaction is excellent. I give an example today about the fingerprint authentication. That's a basic service, but it requires a huge demand return from all the telco's, all transactions happen in telco's, private hospitals, the banking are coming. >> Yeah. >> Any authentication happens, it has to happen in a second. >> Yeah. >> So that requires a huge, massive infrastructure. Once we built it, at the beginning, for only a few customers-- >> Yeah. >> we invested about 250,000 dinar at that time. Now, I think, it's being moved completely to serverless-- >> Yeah. >> Concept, a new development. >> Yeah. >> So... >> A simple idea, hard to implement in the old way, but the new way, you got to wire API's around, sling API's, and connect devices, telco's, environments quickly. So this brings up the integration, this is the benefit of the cloud. >> [Mohammed Ali Al Qaed] Exactly. >> The glue layer is, what, microservices? Is it API's? How are you making that lambda function...? >> You know, that API's, and, just, you call the service and it gets you online and you go back to the storage. I mean, a basic thing. >> Yeah. >> Initially, you know, you need a testing environment, a development environment, a lot of infrastructure, and then you have to secure all of that, secure your data. >> Yeah. >> Now, it's a fraction of that cost and much faster to go to market. >> I'm a huge believer in the services model, and this is why microservices is a big deal right now in clouds, if you look at all the cloud-native conversations, it's containers, we're using it, no problem, very good to use containers. They're great. Kubernetes, now, orchestration. But deal with state and stateless applications is now the new challenge because there are so many new services that are spinning up. Soon, you're going to be like, ordering McDonald's, you know, I'll have a microservice over here, so this is the world we're moving to. This is the services. >> Exactly. And we would like to build a center of excellence, you know? Because we get into this journey, we looked into all our legislations and the ecosystem, trained our employees, their skillset is very important, with the program, with Tamkeen. We looked into the training strategy, all the portfolio training, making sure that our Bahrainees have the ability to develop, to operate, databases and all aspects, even the planning of it. Then institutes, partners, to be ready to train the private sector and everybody. >> You know, Mohammed, I'm really impressed with the entrepreneurial people that I've met. They've got a good mojo to them, because they're kind of cocky, which I love about them, but they're not arrogant. They're like, they're smart, and I so I got a... I see a good community there. The question for you is, as you move to cloud-native, how is that transition? The young kids get it. I mean, it's no problem. >> Yeah. >> Where's the progress on the skillset gap? I've heard that conversation. I just don't see it being a problem if the young kids are eating up the cloud stuff like it's nobody's business. >> Yeah. >> Then I don't see a problem. What's your take on this skills gap thing? I mean, the guys I met, and the entrepreneurs, they're like, they want more action. >> Exactly. The point is the current employees that we have already. Hundreds of government employees that have been trained in a different environment with different technologies. I get a couple of questions from some of the professionals in the market, private sector and government sector: how we can benefit out of that? How we can help? We are experts in the field, but cloud for us is a new thing. So as you mentioned, for them it might be a bit more difficult. So what we did, and the IGA, we created a taskforce of the most brilliant team, and told them okay, you have to migrate the workloads, train, we'll give you the training, and you have to migrate. >> Go. >> Next, you have now to optimize. Give the task of migration to somebody else, a new team, and the old team, they have to optimize. Third, now you have to work on, bore on the cloud, develop on the cloud, create the environment of the cloud, a new concept. So that's how we take-- >> So you're spreading the work around through hands-on training? >> Of course. You train, and then you get them into the action, hands, on, and so on, one by one. But, eventually, the university's already working on training their students. So we want to make sure that part of the curriculum, the cloud is there for the new generations to take it from day one. >> You know, you guys are a learning culture, my observation, first time here, very impressed. Very friendly, which is always cool. But, it's a multilingual culture. So, if you add source code to the new lingua, coding is going to be critical. Are you guys getting at the younger generation really when they're young? How young are you going in terms of the new language, software... Thoughts on that? Where do you see that going? >> Starting from school-- >> Elementary school? >> From elementary school, trying to get them in to coding. Universities as well. >> So you are teaching kids to code? >> Of course. And you know, any citizen they can get any certifications free of charge, according to the agreement with Tamkeen Labor Fund. They are willing to train any Bahrainian on any certifications, professional certifications, free of charge. >> That's great. >> To be ready for the next, and making Bahrainians-- >> So there's no excuses. >> Of course. >> There it is. >> We want to give Bahrainians a choice for employment. >> Yeah. >> You know? If that's the future, we have to make them ready for the future. >> That's great. And the cloud's going to give you all that energy. Talk about the relationship with Amazon a bit, Amazon Web Services. Obviously, Teresa Carlson, really behind this, the whole team. I talk about the whole company, I see them getting behind this and partnering with you guys. They're not just coming in here and being Amazon. There's a real co-development ethos. Talk about the relationship you have with... >> Amazon is impressive. I mean, the way that we work, in a partnership way, everybody should think about the long-term, not the short-term part of the partnership. That they should help the economy, the Bahrainis for employment, making sure that the economy will benefit out of this move to Bahrain. And as well, we have to help with the registrations, with the regulations, with any infrastructure connectivity to the international links. Whatever they need, we try to help them because we believe that eventually it will create the ecosystem for the market. >> I know they open up a lot of doors for you guys, and then for us as well. They attracted us to come and cover the territory here, so we're super excited. And I'm so glad we came because I learned a lot. >> Thank you. >> It's been fantastic. Okay, your big idea... Final question. What's your big idea that's going to come out of the cloud? It doesn't have to be the complete... Your idea, in your personal opinion, what is going to happen five years down the road? What is it going to look like? What will this new magic look like? What's the outcome? >> I think it will be a major restructure and reform in the government. So most of the people working into the routine work of buying and configuring, buying and configuring, they can be more focused into the real problem about the innovation, trying to bring solutions to the problems and issues in the country. Trying to develop software that will help the economy to foster, and to look at what is required, what is the vision of the leaders, try to implement those. So most of the people think business. Before, it was isolation. The technical people only, they had their territory, their environment looking at the wires and hardware and configurations, and somebody else looking into the development and a third group of people who are looking strategically, analytics, and how to utilize it. So, I think what we'll have, we'll merge those people, thinking only about the solutions, and how to analyze and how to come with new solutions out of those analytics. >> And that model has been consolidated, those silos have been broken down. With the cloud, it brings it all together. Developers are now on the front lines. >> Of course. And those-- >> And they're driving the business. >> They're driving the business. >> Mohammed, great to have you on, great to see you. Thanks for sharing your insight. And congratulations. Looking forward to tracking all the great coverage. Amazing opportunity here for everyone in the country, and also for Amazon and for us. Great to meet new people. This is theCUBE, I'm John Furrier. You can reach me on Twitter @Furrier, F-U-R-R-I-E-R, or just search, I'm open. All my channels are open, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, you name it. Say hello, reach out. Stay with us, more all-day coverage after this short break. (tech music)

(upbeat music) >> Live from Bahrain. It's the CUBE. Covering AWS Summit Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Hey, welcome back everyone. We're here live at Bahrain. This is the CUBE's exclusive coverage of the Amazon Web Services Summit here. Where Amazon, AWS, is launching a region in early 2019. It's been announced. This is going to change the game. And also, it's creating a lot of gravity. A lot of people coming together. Of course, the CUBE's first time here. We have lots of observations, lots of commentary, an amazing new guest on the CUBE. We're super excited. Our next guest is Samer Aljishi. Who is the group president of BFG. Welcome to the CUBE. >> Thank you John. Nice to be here >> So, what is BFG? Take a minute to explain. What is BFG? >> Big friendly giant, no. So BFG is an industrial firm where one of the first industries in Bahrain was set up in 1975 as a composites manufacturer. It has grown over the years. So it's been 43 years and it has grown to become a small multinational concentrated in about let's say, quite diversified but broadly covering four different product centers. So, we are working in the architectural area as a supplier of facets and complete building envelopes. Utilizing composites plus other types of innovative building materials. If you look at the building's design for the likes of Saja Hadid where you got parametric architecture and its got unrepeatable shapes. Architects are looking for different types of materials. That are able to achieve those visions, which are quite grand and inspirational. And achieve them cost effectively and efficiently. So we are one of the top players in this area. A second key area for the BFG today, we are recognized as one of the largest suppliers of components to the real industry. So, we serve most of the real industry in Australia, in the Asia, in Europe, and the Americas. Some of the parts are structural, some of them are decorative. Structural parts, we make the front ends, for example, we make the front ends of the TGV. We build the toilet cabins for the majority of trains. A highly sophisticated, integrated product and all of the interior linings. Sol transportation is a big area for us. We also work in renewable energy. We work with BE, cements, and others. It's a supply generator housings for winter months. And then, we have a very strong program on waste treatment management. It's quite a lot of different sectors. They're quite varied. It's quite interesting. I think ,in a way, we'll be talking about industry 4.0. The variety that we have in types of client and the products for those... >> So, what is industry 4.0? Explain that. What is industry? >> Now that's a great question. And it's actually a hard one to answer simply. Industry 4.0 is, I think just to begin with, let's talk about the industry 3.0. >> So, industry 3.0 was a time when you had relational data bases like SAP or Oracle or any other product. Or Microsoft and others come in. In order to put some structure into manufacturing organization and to provide information and visibility. And we have ,also, robotics. A substantial amount of robotics coming in. Industry 4.0 goes a step further from this. In that, what we are now doing with industry four, we have the capability today through the cloud and through machine learning, deep learning, and other tools. We'll able today, to do real time optimization. And that's a big difference between industry three and industry four. I will say ,simply, industry four ,in short, is bringing out real time optimization out of a disordered environment. When you look at manufacturing, manufacturing is not a very ordered system. You've got suppliers that have different delivery schedules that are never matching. It's either ahead or behind. Different quality levels, different capacity levels. You have the supplier of your suppliers if you go one step up. Then you've got operators so I will do something in a different way and speed than you would do it. Even though, it's the same process. So you've got variations in people, variation people skill, variation people's quality. And then you've got machines that could ,perhaps, do a certain process a little bit faster than they do in other process. But ,also, they could fail. They could sometimes fail unpredictably. And if you take all of that and you look at one failure, it could affect a complete program that you had for... >> You get a great software for this. You can program this. Is that what four is? >> Yeah, basically. >> It's much more programmable. >> Basically. It's taking the... >> Not the old static, you know. >> Absolutely. >> Known process. >> Absolutely. >> Or known technology, not very flexible. >> Absolutely so like, the all of the ERP systems of industry three will give you a program for a day. But they wouldn't really recalculate what happens in the middle of a day. And they're not learning. So, they're based on data that is input statically. With industry 4.0, we're putting real time data acquisition on the factory floor. We are putting in tons of IOT sensors, imaging sensors, cameras, operator, measurement systems... >> So flexibility is pretty critical. So, I talk to a lot of people who use cloud and I've met many manufacturing gurus like you. But, the ones that are kind of in operational management roles, they say. The old days we had processes, they were locked in and we kind of did tech and we kind of managed it. Looked at the dashboards, looked at the data, had meetings, tried to fix it. Now, we have kind of new technology but the processes are changing in real time so that at any given time, we might want to deploy a new process. >> Absolutely. Not only this but if I take it forward, a few years forward with artificial intelligence. Now that you're breaking up all of this data and a computer looks at it. It will be able to enter some suggest optimization processes. You no longer need people to do so. The computer will actually see that a particular operator has done something in a different way. It resulted in improvement. It in itself can go and change that operating procedure. >> Well, okay I've got to ask you the question. My mind is going into operating system mode here. I'm writing the kernel in my head. Okay so let's do that. We just built this cool system but now, where's the data? The data really is the key here. If you have good data, you're going to have a real good flexible AI. Bad data is bad AI. >> Exactly. >> How do you view that? How do you set up the architecture? How are you thinking of architectural frame works for managing great data quality? >> Well , you've got to have. First of all, you have to have a good and reliable sensor suite and good sensors for it's captured environment or parameters venture. Other types of vibration. Other types of either motion or sensing or different types of temperature, humidity. And then, you have actually the operators themselves become connected. So you have to find how to connect that operator and extract data of what they're doing into the cloud. You could go as far as actually measuring their exact motion in the future. We don't yet have the hardware or the tech to do so. But, imagine if you can actually measure their motion or you could have very intelligent imaging. Where you got a camera that actually looks like an operator, understands what it does. >> Still coming in. >> That's a lot of data and so the challenge is not just the data centers like Amazon. But it's also creating that bandwidth to feed data from the factory into the cloud. And that's going to be very important. >> Well, I want to ask you about your biggest challenges that you guys are doing right now. But I want to get, 'cause I want to jump quickly into something different . I want to get your opinion since you're an expert. The number one question I had coming over here on this trip was, Amazon, why do they put their region over there for? It's hot as hell. Cooling is the biggest problem. Why would they go to the hot place? So weird with the data center. So , again, the question is since someone who has been involved with sustainable building materials. What do they do? I mean, that's the number one question I get. How do you make it work? It's to cut cooling challenges off season solar. Sun's a friend. Sustainable, renewable energy is going to be a key piece of this data center. What's your opinion? Are you working on it or do you have an opinion on it? >> Well, I just think from like a data center perspective. Yes, it is a hot area in the world and cooling is an issue. But, you know, this region supplies fuel for a large part of the world... >> They've got plenty of oil. >> So we do have energy in plenty. And we certainly have sunshine in plenty in this area. And with solar energy becoming so cross competitive today, we believe that it can very quickly return the additional cost of infrastructural cooling or even the operating part. >> So you see solar, no problem, supporting what they need in cooling and power. >> For sure. For sure. >> Okay so let's get back to your challenges as you go into industry four. Which, by the way, I think it's a whole new management practice. I don't think, you know, the Peter Truckers of the world wrote those books. I think that was industry one, wasn't it? I'll give him some credit. We'll call 'em 2.5 maybe three. >> I think three. >> Okay give him three. 4.0 is a new paridine ship. You're in the cutting edge of it. What are some of the challenges that you're facing that are opportunities? How are you thinking about them? Your thoughts. >> They're a lot of challenges. Technology is still developing so they're a lot of things we would like to do but are not yet available. Certainly, let's just talk from our implementation brain. The skill gap is still one of the key areas. So , in my team and the FTI, taking in about 12 young engineers. Fresh graduates. And we're getting them acquainted with the process because we want to develop homegrown talent. We believe, industry for out of Bahrainians is going to be big. But it's important to have the local skills. >> Need the young guns. Young talent. >> Absolutely and they have to get involved quite early. So that's from the local angle. We have a lot of support coming in from government and other bodies of Bahrain Everybody is fully aligned with this. When we look ,however, at the actual implementation of the development. There's certainly still a certain gap. For example, they're a lot of things that we believe require a higher degree of image recognition and image analysis. I'll give you an example. You got a robot. If you have a robot, you've got to position. Robots are dumb machines. >> Yeah. >> Unless something is placed exactly in the right place. >> I know a lot of people are building more robots more than ever. So there's more robots out there. >> And you know what's surprising, we're discovering that the robots aren't very connected and they're not yet to day. The programing of the robot doesn't enable you to develop them or to connect them or to implement industry four on this. Just seeing that announcement, recently. Microsoft, for example, is ruling out robot programming languages. Which would be a great start and that's what you need. So, we find that they're quite a lot of missing technologies to make industry four really, really operational. Related to our robotics imaging and date acquisition. >> The phase we're in now is connect and then being intelligent. So IOT and robotics is like "Let's get connected." "Let's get power to it." And then make it more intelligent. >> Absolutely. So today I think we're at the stage where we can collect data. We can analyze it. We can project what's optimized. And I hope that we're yet at the stage where we can take that optimization and actually implement into very quickly real time on the software because of certain interface issues. >> Interfaces are data bases. Are they technical or business challenges? >> They're both technical. >> Okay, okay. >> But the technology is developing so quickly that I think a lot of these challenges will disappear in a couple of years. >> What are you most excited about? Assume that the connecting and the power parts happening that's easy to do. On the making more intelligent, what are you excited about? What are you looking at? What are some of things you're really investing your time on? >> Well, I think this technology is very interesting and can be applied to. When industry four rolled out, it was mainly the large processing industries that adopted this. Or maybe even large mass, production type industries which adopted this. I think there's tremendous, tremendous potential for this with the medium and small enterprises. Particularly those that are doing what we call discreet manufacturing. Which is producing limited series or limited amounts of parts. And where you have a high amount of human interaction and labor and know how. With the ability to do this, you'll be able to create something that's equivalent of factoring a box. So you can actually box that know how and you'll be able to transport it anywhere in the world. And be able to localize or become international very quickly. >> That was un-gettable in the old model because of the cost and the size of the equipment and the requirements to do it. >> And the fact that know how was really still even if it's written. It was mainly in somebody's head. >> Yeah. And this is going to impact everyone from street vendors to... >> Absolutely. >> All kinds of businesses. >> Absolutely. >> And this is going to make, hopefully, create more efficiencies. >> Hopefully, yes. >> Around smart energy maybe. >> Absolutely. Like industry two to three and three to four. It has its own number because it will create such a large transformation of business as we see. >> Well, I really appreciate Samer coming on the CUBE this year and your insights. Great conversation. >> Thank you. >> I like your talk about processes improvement. It's one of my dark, little secret hobbies. Manufacturing, although, I'm not a big operational guru. I'm not a detailed person but I love the operating system concept around manufacturing and system. >> We love to have a conversation a few months from now and show you how the demonstrator has gone ahead. >> I'd love to keep in touch. Final question before you break. I know we got to go. Just quick thoughts on the impact of having a region of Amazon here in Bahrain. >> Well, I think having Amazon here is a huge, huge thing. For the country and for the region. So just the presence of Amazon, not only is it an enabler but it by itself would create such a great support for the developing ecosystem here of star clubs. The Bahrainians , we as Bahrainians, I often tell people. Innovation, entrepreneurship is built into the Bahrainians since thousands of years ago. >> It's a learning culture. >> It's a learning culture. I'm always surprised by the level of skill, the level of enthusiasm for know how, for innovation that happened. Having Amazon come here, I think reinforces this. With the people in Bahrain and in the region. And I think it's going to leap for all that development. >> It's a free economic new energy. >> Absolutely. >> One thing, I'll just, I know we have to go. But , I wanted to comment, I've seen Amazon do this before. It's not just big businesses, developers are going to scale up. And this whole skill gaps thing, we've seen it now for nine years. I've witnessed it and talked about it. Here's the common strength, the pattern. It doesn't matter if you're 15 or 50, you can level up and be the next guru in months. I know people who went from eight weeks are doing serious employments. Gripto, these new AIs. You can literally come from any point. >> Absolutely. >> And level up and be one of the best. Versus the old linear. >> Absolutely. >> Education. So if your culture's got that mojo learning. >> This could transform and we no longer are limited by just capital. Now we're just limited by creativity. And you could have that any place. You can find some global links rising out of Bahrain very quickly. >> I was really bullish of you guys. My advice when I was at the crown table yesterday was, you guys got a good community. They're active, they're vibrant, they complained a lot which is a good sign. Because they should be. You have capital, then you have a power source coming in here with Amazon and resources. Let the ecosystem organically develop. The soil's been planted. Let it grow. >> Absolutely. >> Don't try to make any forced decisions. Feed it. Get out of the way when you have to. Help it when you need it. Nurture it. Don't worry about it, it'll figure itself out. I think that is a good pattern. It's hard to get the community. You can't like buy a community. >> You can't forced innovation. You can't go and tell somebody "Please be creative, be innovative today." >> You can't buy a community. You can't buy the advancements. Thanks so much Samer. And we're at the CUBE. We went a little bit over but , you know, we like getting all the action and getting all the smart people. Creating some great insights and we're going to continue all day. So stay with us for more coverage after this short break.