>> From Bahrain, it's the Cube. Covering AWS Public Sector, Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Everyone welcome to the Cube here in Bahrain, for AWS in the Middle East, Manama Summit. I'm John for the Cube coverage. It's cloud computing, new Amazon region, a lot of innovation. But two great guests we have, Huda Ahmed Mohsen, who's the Chief of Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Authority. Welcome to the Cube. And Sameera Mohammed Al Atawi. You are the Information and Communication Technology Director at the American University in Bahrain. Thank you for coming on. >> Thank you so much for having me here. >> Great to have you on. The ministries are mandated to move to the cloud, Huda, so we know what's coming for you, 2020. The goal is cloud first in Bahrain. We covered this last year. How's that going? On plan? >> It is on plan and is in the process. We start in November 2017. We start our journey with the clouds. We start moving our load smoothly. We're planners. Face a lot of challenge in the beginning, of course, as all of the ministries. Then with help the IGA with our governments, we move smoothly. I think now we reach a good position that we can reach our vision in Salah. >> Well, it's great that the government in Bahrain has a mandate for all the ministries to move to the cloud. I have to ask you, share with the folks watching, why the move to the cloud? What was the big reason why the cloud first was in place? >> See, technology's moving fast now, and the speed and security and the availability is very important to us as a ministry, especially for ministry information. That's why we decide, and as a government, vision, of course, we did decide to move to the cloud. >> A lot of integration from the old way to the new way. What are some of your observations between the two? >> Of course, a lot of changing, a lot of difference, because if you need to just establish any projects in an a normal way, how much time you will have spent, and how much resources you will have spent? And a cloud, you can just imagine. It is with a click. >> Sameera, you're in a new role. Talk about your new role where you were before. This is not new to you, the cloud. You've had your toe in the water before. You've been playing around with the cloud. Now with the American University in Bahrain, full steam ahead, a lot of pressure, lot of need, desire? >> I think, yes, it is not new for me. I'm in the IT field like know for ages. I wouldn't say the years. But then, yes, it's not new, but in Bahrain polytechnic we are having the same journey, like migrating to the cloud. It's a new challenge in the American University of Bahrain. It's a new startup, entrepreneur university. But then the interesting thing that I have joined them like three weeks ago and now the IT is up and running within two weeks. So with the help of the cloud and AWS, our servers now all up and running. By the way, this is our first day in school. So our students there just taking their formal classes as per today. So this is a very proud moment. >> And the servers are on the cloud, powering everything? >> Yes, we have more data on the cloud at the moment, and we have also 5365, and we have our ERPC Stem, as well. It's all in the cloud. So within two weeks, that's an amazing story to be told. >> Versus the old way was months, years? >> Well, actually, it's for every institution there are some challenges and there are some pros and cons, but I think the most beautiful thing about Bahrain polytechnic that everybody was working as a team and we understand each others issues. So regardless the time, there always been a support and faith and trust in IT just to deliver the organization mission and vision. This is the same with the American University of Bahrain. There is a huge trust and faith in IT that they will derive the trust formation, or the change to the future. Ironically, the future's here. >> Yeah, and the cloud region is beautiful out here. The impact academic is something that we're going to be watching closely, because the training is coming too. We're seeing that in the announcements here around a cloud computing degree, more skill development. But I have to ask you from a business standpoint in the academic area, what's the main use cases for cloud? Is it the curriculum? Is it the operations? What is some of the key cloud areas you're innovating on? >> Very interesting question. I think we have like a blend of use cases. We have the operational use cases, and we have the academic use cases as well. I mean, the most important for us is in the university is the academic. Now how we can empower our students to face the challenges of the future and the market demand. So we are sensing a lot of interest about the artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, and this morning when I was just scrolling down the menu of AWS, I've been seeing this a lot. So how we can imbed this technology or the reading material like an AWS educate in our courses and material, versus the operational use cases, how we can deliver the business objective in an entire mode and in a most efficient way. You know, like in university, we have so much critical time that we don't afford losing IT, like exams, posting grades, even for our students graduation projects. It's become easier and easier for the business, however with the aid of IT. >> And the agility is very important because the expectation from the students is high. >> It's way high. I mean, the expectation and the use is already there. So, not like before, not like my age, you know, like students, they get to introduce technology when they got to the university. Now all of our students, they already know and use the technology before they join. >> Huda, talk about the ministry, because you guys on the government side, very progressive, doing new things. You got Amazon's region here, which is going to create a revitalization. You're in the middle of it. What are some of your observations on the things that are going on that are new for you guys that are a positive? >> Seeing now a cloud maybe as a ministries and as a government project, the most new thing that we get that the new environment. This is totally new environment. You know if you just have any new thing or any new environment, you have resistance from everyone, because it's a new thing. >> People fear change. >> Yes. >> They don't want to change. >> Of course. Even sometimes the change is good, but this is the mentality of people to resist a change. As a government because we have one vision, which is all the ministries working within this vision. We really plan it well, I think. And we do it well. As you see now in Bahrain, the time that they establish the cloud until now, you can see how many projects in the process, how many project already done. >> You know, cultural change, we cover this. We go to hundreds of events. We cover all around the world, mostly in the United States, but culture's number one. People always want to push back against change. However, the benefits that you were pointing out, Sameera, are undeniable. Two weeks, talk about standing up critical infrastructure for whether it's curriculum or for services for citizens. It's hard to debate, to justify the old way. It's pretty hard. (chuckles) Maybe some political in there, but, I mean, ultimately, the proof is there. That has to be factored in. How do you guys do that? Do you just show people the data? Look what we did. Is that how you get things through? Is it more cultural? >> I think we just discuss in a panel about even let's talk about only the part of the financially thing. Before I was in IT, if you want to just make anything, and data sent out on any projects, how much time you will have spent to bring the devices, to bring the servers, to connect it, to do it. How much time you will have spent, even in the financially procedures, as a government, of course? Now it is, if you have any problem or any projects, you just by click finish it and done. >> I'm very impressed with Iran, second year the Cube's been here. The things we've talked about last year have been executed. They're executing. The region's up and running. The cryptocurreny is in place. We covered that just now. We're going to hear about some curriculum for degrees. But last year, you mentioned the panel. You guys were just on the AWS We Power Tech. Last year, Teresa Cross hosted a big breakfast, and I was lucky enough to attend that. I actually got kicked out of my seat, because with so many women that wanted to sit down, I happily gave up my seat for that. It was a packed house. Women in tech is very real and growing. You guys were just on a great panel talking about this. What was going on in the panel? What was the key topic? >> Well, actually, the key topic is celebrating women in IT. And I think women now they are flourishing in the IT field. We're showing lots of power and strength. Also I think women in nature, we are dealing with problem solving like in a natural way, as well as team buildings. So it comes with our genes. On top of that, the technical power and the technical thinking and the experience in the IT field, of course it adds a lot of confidence when we are presenting our plans. And we see that society is welcoming the woman workforce in IT field more and more every day. So I think this is something that we should celebrate and we should put a lot of highlight on it. Knowing that the value of woman is really growing. >> You were just talking about the time change, how things are faster. Things are getting done much faster, so things are accelerating, and combined with more job openings, more roles are opening. It's not just coding. It's creative, design thinking. So you're seeing a surface area of opportunities. Huda, you're seeing this as well in the government. This is a bigger field now. Your thoughts on how you see the panel. >> Yes, but maybe Sameera will have more experience in this area. >> On the skill gaps question that comes up a lot, there's so many job openings coming. There's a region here, there's entrepreneurs and startups. What are some of the new skills that folks are trying to learn? What do you guys think? >> Well, actually on that, coming from an educational field, we know that cloud computing is like number one set of skills that is on demand for the coming few years. But again, knowing that, it will be as essential as we should not think about it. It just will be transforming as a very catalyst. The way that we're thinking of electricity. At the beginning it was a big deal. Later on, it just there, and it has to be there for us to move as a society, for us to move as an economy. Then we're moving to the real things as, for example, blockchains and we're talking about artificial intelligence. And the technology itself is just not as important unless it has some feed in the economy development or in the society change. So I think this is how we can see that happening. >> So overall, you both think that cloud computing is going to revitalize the area? >> Definitely. >> Of course. >> Definitely, in a big way. I mean, the market, the first skill set is looked at in the IT field and is how many training, how many certificates have you taken in cloud computing? On top of that, robotics, big data, but the most important thing, how to make the technology benefit the citizens. In our case, the students, how we can deliver our classes in a better way. How we can transform the business of university from on campus to study from anywhere. Though we have a very amazing campus in American University of Bahrain. >> Looking forward to covering you guys. Final question for you guys. What's next? What do you guys have coming up in this next year? A lot of activities? What are the goals? What are some of the things you're trying to accomplish? >> Our next thing that we are planning to complete on this cloud project, to shift all our environment to the cloud to success in this, and to implement it in a good way that we can really use it in a good way, because you know, sometimes you will see the cloud and do lose it, but you cannot use it and really benefit way that you can get all the benefit from it. So it show our religion now and our next step to use it inventory. >> I think for us and the American University of Bahrain, we had yesterday an amazing meeting with Teresa, and having our CEO, Dr. Susan in the meeting as well. And I think there is a lot of great anticipation of what we can do together. So something that is put on the table that we want to sort of strengthen this relationship in terms of integrating our courses with AWS, as well as looking forward for new opportunities like training and certificate in the field and so forth. >> This is super exciting, benefits the citizens, students, new educational opportunities, new jobs, new services, whole new oasis. >> I think this is all, it's all about... >> The cloud oasis. This is the Cube coverage. We are here in Bahrain for AWS Summit here. I'm John Furrier, be back with more after this short break.

>> Live from Bahrain it's theCUBE. Covering AWS Summit Bahrain. Brought to you be Amazon Web Services. >> Okay welcome back everyone, we are here in Bahrain for the special exclusive coverage of AWS Summit in the region and the big announcement of the AWS region being deployed here, and that's scheduled for Q1 roughly in 2019 as Teresa Carlson told us today on theCube. This is exciting opportunities for the Middle East and the region and around the world, a big spot where Amazon needed a region, of course we get all that coverage. Our next guest here is Lana Al Attar, founder of Gud Juju, and amazing logo on their card, empowering good, welcome to theCube, good to see you. >> Thank you for having me. >> Great to meet you. Yesterday, we were chatting, take a minute to explain what Gud Juju is, and we'll get to the meaning of the logo, if you can see it, I'm not sure if you can see it. Go ahead, what's Gud Juju? >> Gud Juju means good magic. We're a digital agency with a conscience, and how we do that is, a lot of our clients are people that have any kind of social good to them, so we're talking autism schools, or even normal schools, for example, they might charge money, but they're still in the industry of education, so it's fantastic. So, we help the little guys, we give them the technology they need, we empower them with technology, and that's what Gud Juju's about. On the other side of the spectrum, we also hire mostly women to do the development, so we hire and train. We hire refugees as well, and most recently we've signed a contract with a company and they provide us differently abled people, but they're fantastic designers and developers, so we've expanded into that as well. So, we pay our staff to be heroes, they are heroes day in and day out, and that's why I told you to wait (laughter) I can see you're impressed. >> Oh my god, I'm impressed. Well, no, I mean, there's a little bit of capitalism in there too that makes me go "Wow, that's a brilliant idea" (mumbles) In the labor market, but they're also helping people, and you're giving, tapping into passion. Taking a passion project, turning it into a business, help people, bring it all together, magic. >> Exactly. >> We help people >> That's good magic! >> Exactly, that's where the name Gud Juju comes from. >> Great mission, I love your mission, tell me about some of the things you're working on. >> Oh, okay, so most recently we're working on a "diversity on board" project, and initially it will be to, so we handle the tech part of this. A lot of people, they come to us and they try to partner with us, or even get us to complete their project. And, this particular project, if you go to any part of the world, usually in the Middle East, it'll be Middle Eastern men on the boards, and if you go to the States, it'll be middle aged white men on the boards, so there's no diversity. And that can be a problem for certain companies because if you want a 360 view, >> That's a big problem. It's a problem, period. I think, pretty much, people have figured out that diversity gives you more. >> Of course. >> Than not having it. >> You see things from different angles, because if you have the same kind of age group, and the same kind of gender, and the same everything, then you will not foresee the different challenges or opportunities that come by. So, this is a matchmaking portal that we're working on and it's soon to be launched, we're already testing internally in beta, and then then we're going to expand it into a private beta group, so that's one of the things that I'm working on, I recently, within the company, did one for the Women Power Summit, it was the largest summit in Bahrain for women, we had 500 woman attendees, and about 50 speakers, some of them were international as well, all women, men were welcome but a majority of them were women. And, just to really up the game in the gender equality. So we did the technology for that as well, so we did an online ticketing system, a credit card debit card payment and reservation, so it was a lot of fun. >> So who's coding all these apps? >> Oh, it's us, internally in the team. We have about nine in Bahrain, and most of them are women except for one, the digital marketer. >> People are getting down and dirty and coding away. >> Yes, though it does take a lot of training. So, in Bahrain, there's been a shift, so I also run a local development community, so the Google developer group in Manama, the Manama chapter, and we have like 651 members, so it's picking up. >> Wow. TensorFlow is like candy for developers. People love TensorFlow. >> We did do a few TensorFlow, yeah, definitely, AI, machine learning, deep learning, it's on right now. >> It really is. So how do you find all these people? Do they come to you, you got an open policy hiring refugees, >> Mm-hmm. >> So is there like a network, are you tapping your own network? >> So what we usually try to do is find people that are on the ground, and then they tell us "we have this kind of facility setup, so can you find us a job?" and I will never say no to people wanting jobs and to be very honest, in my line of work, especially when you're catering to charities and NGOs, you have an abundance of clients, it's overflowing. Because, they don't have the capital that they need in order to accomplish their projects. >> And even big firms are like conglomerates, now. We want to tap into these big agencies, you need to write a big check, >> Yeah, exactly. and you might not get the service you need anyway. And if you're an NGO, you don't get the love that the big commercial clients would get. >> Exactly. So, we cater to those kinds of clients. And also, we have, so our slogan is "empowering good". So we empower those who empower other people. We would never sell our clients something that they don't need, for example, we focus primarily on like, sometimes they want a website and an app and the whole nine yards, and they just need one page to accept payments and donations online, and that's all they really need, And some good branding. And so we make sure they focus that capital that they already have, and then, and really capitalize on that capital that they have, and give them the maximum bang for their buck, basically. >> That's awesome. Now, who do you work with? Do you have any partners, are you doing it solo, what are your... >> It's just me leading a staff of nine, and then we tap into a global market of ten, so we have associates that we bring on. I believe in the gig market, I don't think that having full-time staff long term is something that is sustainable. So I recently came back from China, from the annual meeting of champions, and the common theme over there, whether it was the future of work, the future of education, or even the future of... Wait, there was work, there was education, and there was one more. >> There was something. >> Yeah, oh, E-commerce, there we go. Digital, like online sales. And we noticed, there was a very big trend towards everything being digitalized. And with the exception of having community clubhouses, to have that human factor over there. So people love to still have that, you know, that engagement, that bonding, that I belong to that company, or I belong to that mission or vision, but everything is going online. So, I really believe that the gig market's going to, it's already started taking off. So, it's going to be a thing. >> And then being a part of community really brings the shared experiences together. And when you have that kind of co-creation or interaction, it makes people feel part of something bigger. And that's bonding. >> Exactly. So even if you look at e-commerce stores, a lot of them have their flagship stores, but they're not there for sales, because most of their sales get done online. They're there for giving that experience, so when you walk in a store, you have that experience. >> Yeah. >> That's super. What's the biggest thing that you've learned doing this? Is there anything that surprised you, things that jumped out at you, things you didn't expect, things that were successful, you go "wow, that was amazing", things you tripped over >> Oh, I tripped over a lot. (both laugh) It's constant tripping. >> Of course. Well that's how you learn! >> Yeah. So when I first started, I mean, people think like, okay, so you're going to help charities and you're going to help people and you're going to make money, how does that work? I learned very earlier on that people value what they pay for, so don't give things for free. You charge people, but charge them reasonably. So you say, okay I'll charge you this much for this kind of service, and this bit you can do by yourself. We'll give you the guidelines, we've done it over and over, and we'll tell you what your branding is, and then you go out, find the pictures, or write up the copywriting or whatever. So there was that, there was a lot of, so for example, "oh you can't hire refugees", and "why can't I hire refugees", there's a lot of trial and error. Obviously, you'd have people that will sell their (laughs) >> You got to give it a shot, give it a try. >> yeah, of course. And, the experience has been unbelievable. Some of them start out with wordpress development, and then end up with full-stack Javascript. Right? And you give people a chance, it's just like that example of professor Muhammed Yunus in Grameen bank, where they said "oh you can't loan to beggars" and he's like "why not?", and the default rate is so much more lower than the conventional banks. And they don't have any credit ratings! Right, so, I learned to not, I try not to follow the status quo, my mission is purely to empower people, whether I'm employing them, or I'm doing a project for them, so there's always that angle. And it's very different when you know what your values are. And you go in, so... >> And then you got having alignment. Well, Lana, thanks for coming on theCube this year, great to hear your story. >> Thank you. I think Bahrain is going to be a great tech scene. Obviously, I'm very encouraged by the entrepreneurs that I met. You can kind of spot an entrepreneur a mile away, they chirp a lot, they want to go faster, where's the cash, where's the collaboration? Not in a mean way, I don't mean that. And the other thing is that surprised me was Teresa's Women's Breakfast yesterday, that was blowing me away. How dynamic the group was, thought that was phenomenal. Just great to see this startup community here in Bahrain doing, just so much energy and support. >> We have a very tight ecosystem, I'm sure some of the other people probably have already mentioned this. Everybody talks to everybody, so you either, you're always one step away from whatever it is that you need. So, either you ask a person, they know exactly what you need, or they refer you to that person, and they give you like, name and number, right then and there, so, we're all intertwined. I think you've seen us all, how the ecosystem is amazing. >> It's important, and it's super important as communities with open source, you can see this when Amazon comes here, it's going to be a goodness of open source. >> Oh, it is! We're going to have navscale, we're going to have pull, new opportunities going to be coming in, >> Fantastic. it's going to be really, it should be a fun ride, I'm looking forward to covering you guys. >> I've been telling everyone that it is an amazing time to be a woman tech entrepreneur in this region. Amazing. >> Congratulations, and our doors are always open in Silicon Valley if you need anything. >> Awesome. >> Okay, there's more Cube coverage, stay with us! All day, wall to wall, stay with us. We got a couple more interviews, be right back after this short break. 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(upbeat electronic music) >> Live from Bahrain. It's theCUBE. Covering AWS summit Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> And welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage here in Bahrain for the exclusive coverage of the AWS's summit and their announcement and their execution of a new region which should be online here in early 2019. I'm John Furrier, your host with SiliconANGLE Media theCUBE, extracting the signal from the noise, meeting all the people. First time the Middle East and the region should be a big impact, having a digital footprint as size of Amazon Web Services, bringing energy and entrepreneurship and innovation and economic revitalization and enablement. We'd love the coverage, we meet a lot of great people. Our next guest is Simon Martin who's the ambassador of the British embassy here in Bahrain. Simon, welcome to theCUBE. >> Thanks. >> Thanks for joining us. >> My pleasure. >> So, OK, so I want, I want to just kind of get your perspective. I met the US ambassador yesterday the last night at dinner. He's kind of new to the area and the job. >> But he's already, >> You've got experience, >> But he's already well informed, I can tell you (laughs). >> He's well informed (laughs). Birth by fire, thrown in the deep end. You've been here for a few years. >> Yeah, three. >> Take a minute to talk about the environment here, because we're first time here. We're learning or observing. I'm certainly surprised. My daughter was asking me: What are the women like there? We had a women's breakfast yesterday. 70 plus people. The energy, the diversity, interesting culture. Feels like very open, what's your thoughts. >> Well, very much so, I mean, Bahrain has been at the sort of crossroads of international travel for hundreds and hundreds of years. The UK's relationship with Bahrain, the formal one, goes back just over 200. And that was all to do with trade. Manama means the place of sleep. And it was the place that people used to stop to rest on their way across the Arabian subcontinent and towards the Indian subcontinent, and so on. So, it's a place which is naturally welcoming of foreigners and outside ideas. And I think that's what Amazon have found here. So, there is an often lot of change going on in this part of the world. Bahrain is relatively small economy compared to its neighbors. It was the place that oil was first discovered in the Gulf, but, actually, once they discovered it, they realized that she had rather less than most of the neighbors and, therefore, it's an economy which has had to adapt to keep, keep growing. In contrast, >> Mainly, mainly the dependence on oil, other oil-rich areas. >> Yeah. >> Right, is that it? >> Yeah. So, that's been the main stay of the economy for some time, but there is not the, there is not yet the potential for the growth that's needed in order to help develop an economy with its, with the necessary modern infrastructure. A growing population, a need for, for quality employment for young people which is something that we've heard a lot of in the last few years. >> Talk about your history, how long have you been in the job you're in, what's the background, what are some of the things that you've done >> OK >> at the government in the UK. >> Yeah, well, Thank you, so I've been here for three years. Before that, I was working, actually, for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. And in that role, visited this part of the world on a couple of occasions, and so, and so the impact of that very important part of our relationship, royal family's relationship with the royal families in this part of the Gulf, and it just opened my eyes a bit to the, to the importance of having multifaceted relationships. And, again, this is what we're now, this is what we are now seeing here, that Amazon Web Services with the cloud region that they are building here have brought a new dimension, >> (laughs) The fly got... >> Not surprised, to the Bahraini economy. >> So, tell me about the multifaceted piece of news. What I'm fascinated by is the Dubai dynamic, right. You know, I see Dubai, a lot of events there, Blockchain events, AI events, a lot of tech events. Feels like New York to me, using the American metaphor. It's kind of like a Silicon Valery kind of vibe. But they all work, been working together for years. What's the historical relationships, how have they changed, and how does cloud computing make up for that? How does that play into it? >> Well, of course there've been, it's been a very collaborative and yet competitive relationship between the different, particularly the finance centers of the Gulf for many years. The economic success story of Dubai is very well known. Bahrain has continued to develop, but without the resources that underpin the UAE success, has done so on a more, more progressive way. But this is always be, going to be a much smaller economy and Bahrain has to, has to compete in niches in which it has the competitive advantage. And it's this, what we have now happening here, is creating a wonderful new niche opportunity for Bahrain. But, of course, I don't think am letting out any secrets to say that each of the countries in the Gulf would love to have been hosting the new cloud region. >> Yeah. >> So Bahrain had try incredibly hard to present an environment in which to host this kind of, this kind of investment which requires regulation. It requires openness and ease of doing business and it also requires an openness to developing the labor force to support not only the Amazon, but all of the train of companies that we're expecting to invest along behind it. >> Well, Simon, I really appreciate your experience and candor here on theCUBE. Certainly, for us it's a new area and you have certainly a perspective for, for the Royal Family in the UK, and now being here. But one of the interesting things I'd like to get your perspective on is, you know, you look at globalization and you look at regulations, you look at digital, things like GDPR, you see all traditional things, you mean, you can go back when I was a young kid growing up, I remember the pound and the French franc and all the different currencies going on, and then EU comes together. And now you have Asia and cryptocurrency. So you have a whole another cloud computing generation coming where that might reimagine the political landscape, might imagine the economic relationships. These are opportunities, but also threats. And so how people handle it is interesting. So, how do you, when you look at that kind of dynamic, you got a little bit uncertainty and opportunity at the same time, depending how you look at it, it's the glass half full or the glass half empty. >> Exactly. >> How should executives and government officials start thinking about this new model, this new marketplace. London is certainly the center of the action and connects now into Bahrain, could be a different dynamic, frictionless, digital. >> Mhmm. >> People living across borders. These are new dynamics. What's your thoughts on this new melting pot of digital impact? >> Well, of course, everybody wants a piece of it, everybody wants to be at the center of a new melting pot. And for Bahrain, they're looking to be the of it within, within this region, but of course, the Dubai Finance Center and, you know, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, and so on are also, are also very keen, and no one, no one is expecting to be the dominant player. And certainly from Bahrain's perspective, it's very much about creating the environment in which companies will see, this is a good place to start. The Gulf region is a coherent region with an incipient single market, and so on, within the GCC, and so, naturally, investors from the outside are going to look at one place to start. And so what Bahrain has done, and I think it's, it's been very well founded, it's just taken place over the three years that I've been here, it's to dramatically increase the ease of doing business, and then find proportionate ways in which the government can support new companies to get them established. So, you mentioned GDPR and, you know, how's this going to affect a company in the Gulf. Well, I was at the launch of a very interesting new big data software project by one of the, in fact British owned new startups in the FinTech Bay here which is supported by the Economic Development Board. They're starting point is that the product that we are selling out of Bahrain is GDPR compliant, which gives you an idea of the way, >> Yeah. >> in which even from, from this relatively small island in the Gulf, >> Yeah. >> the global perspective has been taken. >> And certainly with, you know, digital currency, the Know Your Customer Anti Money Laundering is the big thing too, you got to get that right. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> So, they have an opportunity with FinTech. Final question for you, as you look out and see the human capital market and the future of work. >> Yeah. >> It's a big conversation we're always having and certainly I live in Silicon Valley where everyone's, no secret that there's a migration out of Silicon Valley due to the prices of living there, but yet concentration of entrepreneurship. People are going to have engineering teams all over the world. so you have a disperse workforce now crossing borders and not just the domicile issue, that's one, you know, taxes, where to domicile, outside say the US or other countries. So, you have a combination of diverse workforces. >> Mhmm. >> This is big, this is a big opportunity too, challenge and opportunity. >> It is, it is. And, of course, there are not just big changes, now, there's constant fluctuation in the way the workforce and the populations in this part of the world and within the gulf are changing. Look at Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia, the big increase in the Saudi workforce, both through the policy of Saudization and through the creation of many more opportunities for women in the workforce. That's affecting Bahrain. But Bahrain has always been a place where people come to work and sometimes to work remotely, sometimes to live here and work across in Saudi Arabia. So, the Bahrainis feel that they are very, very attuned to these challenges. But I might just mention as well that this is not just about economics. And what impresses me about the reform program you see going on here is that, the idea is that we will create a broader and wider spread opportunity, particularly through the opportunities for young professionals working in AWS, but also in the environment all the way around it, for all communities in Bahrain, not just the wealthy, not just the sort of Ivy league equivalent graduates. >> Yeah. >> And so that's why the academy that they're setting up here can, >> And then network does emerge in social networking is going to bring people closer together. >> Yeah. >> OK, great to have you on. Final question is, as people look at this moment in time, maybe an inflection point, shot heard around the Gulf, if you will, of Amazon, certainly they did this with CIA in our country, the said success is coming in, and kind of changing how things do, reimagining value creation and value capture. What do you see as the impact of the, a diverse region have been in this area and the geography? Just your thoughts on what the impact's going to be. >> Well, of course, this is a virtual world and a cloud region is the virtual concept, so it's easy to say, well it shouldn't take an Amazon Web Services cloud region to transform the way in which governments work here. In practice, what AWS have seen wherever they have established cloud regions, it's a magnet for other businesses to develop around it, and it provides the reassurance that governments need to take that step forward. I don't know whether you heard Max Peterson and his presentation this morning saying he was amazed at the speed with which the entire Bahraini government system has embraced the move to the cloud which, indeed, my own government is doing as we speak. And this, I think, is going to be one of the really big, the really big impacts which will allow governments to get smaller and more efficient and more transparent >> And serve their citizens in a different way, in a better way. >> But one last thing, John. Because, you may not have heard about this is, we're hearing a lot about the shift towards renewable energy in this part of the world, and people say, why on earth would we need renewable energy which is, you know, so much of the world's petrol carbon resources are based here, but, of course, if you don't burn them, you can sell them. And that's very simple economics. The fact is that it has taken longer than other parts of the world for the transition to renewable energy, even though we have so much sunshine and at times quite a lot of wind. The government here just put out a tender for a 100 megawatt solar farm. And the driving force behind that is because AWS have said: we want to power our cloud region from renewable energy. And this is an example of industry and the big investors actually applying a positive force to speed up the direction of the government policy already. And it's something that has been well. >> It's happened fast, this private partnership public relationship, that's a success story. >> And I think there are lots of other ways we will see this happening, as I say, you can't have over 2000 people here all focusing on the cloud technology without bringing an awful lot of extra attention to and focus on what else is going on in Bahrain. >> Yeah. >> From my perspective, the Bahrain government is saying we welcome, we welcome this, this publicity, and we look forward to explaining ourselves. And I think we'll see a lot of further development in this area. >> Simon that's a great point. Sustainable energy and the trade-off between industry, private industry trying to make money, but contributing technology and a co-creation with the government. >> Yeah. >> I mean, data center, it's hot here, you need cooling, you got sun power, you see, you got to have that solution. >> Absolutely, yeah. >> You can't burn it, you can sell it, so good opportunity. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Simon Martin, ambassador, the British ambassador to the embassy here in Bahrain. Thank yo for sharing your insights and color commentary. >> Pleasure to meet you, John. >> Appreciate it. Okay, live coverage here. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE bringing you all the new observations. Our first time in the Middle East region well coherent structure, great economics, great society benefits, cloud computing, Amazon Web Services region opening up in 2019. Exclusive coverage. Stay with us fore more after this short break. (upbeat electronic music)