Amazon, the giant of the electronic commerce western, atified its confidence in Argentina in spite of which the country entered this year in recession. And he spoke about the fate of his new data center in Latin America, an investment for which the governments of Mauricio Macri and Chile have been bidding for a couple of years.The definitions of the company of Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, came from the mouth of Teresa Carlson, the maximum responsible for the public sector within Amazon Web Services (AWS), the division of the company dedicated to the computer business on the cloud.
In a press conference with Chilean newspapers and iProUP (only Argentine media present) in the framework of the conferences "re: Invent", which were held in the US city of Las Vegas, the executive highlighted the long-term commitment of the company in Argentina.
Carlson visited the country in May, as iProfesional informed, to announce the arrival in the country of its educational platform AWS Educate.
It is a global initiative where resources are shared to train students aged 14 and older on the use of technology in the cloud.
"My trip to Argentina and Chile was really amazing, I really liked it, the food, the people, it was really fantastic to see, in my first time in both countries, the desire to take the digital transformation to a national level," said the executive. before iProUP and the trans-Andean media in Las Vegas.
"They are different countries, but very interrelated, so I could perceive the feeling that they want to work together, which they already do now," Carlson said.
-You visited Argentina in May. In the following months there was a great devaluation and the country is in recession. How does this affect AWS plans in Argentina? Asked iProUP to Carlson.
-First of all, we work with many countries around the world that have rising and falling economies, and that does not mean we abandon our clients. We believe that technology is the catalyst that allows us to carry out the change, so we will continue working together with Argentina.
We believe and hope that our cloud technology in Argentina - at the university level and at the governmental level - will help create new jobs, maybe even help the development of new entrepreneurs.The startups, the new companies that can appear, all need services in the cloud. That's why I think AWS can help them. All companies go up and down, so I am sure that Argentina will improve.
The Colombian player
In October, Amazon announced its decision to move to Colombia, where it opened 600 jobs, physical and virtual offices, and 24/7 customer service for its first customer service center in South America.
The company had inaugurated its AWS office in that country in 2017, so Colombia joined Argentina and Chile as candidates to become the headquarters of the new data center of the technological giant in the region.
-When will AWS define where it will build the new data center in South America? Will it be in Argentina, Chile or Colombia? Asked iProUP to Carlson.
-We do not have a specific moment. In a while we will have several regions in Latin America, we will even have different types of regions.
To use Chile as an example, I did not know that there were so many earthquakes there. Then, obviously, that becomes a variable to consider. We are going to Chile, but we have to evaluate the place well so that the activity is not affected by this type of situation.
It is not impossible, but there are several places in Latin America where you have to evaluate where to settle and how to create a network of work between countries. To answer the question, there is a project, but there is still no time or deadline to comply.Impact
Asked about the economic impact of Amazon's arrival in countries such as Argentina or Chile, AWS's global vice president for the public sector clarified that she could not answer about that impact in each country in particular.
"When we arrive we make a study of the economic situation of the country, it is one of the first steps we take and we share it with the local government," he explained.
"But what I can say is that when we go to the countries we create thousands of jobs and take them to a community of partners, so we help create a kind of unique environment around us so that businesses can grow in that We took a group of employees, but later we nurtured the local workers, "he said.
At the press conference with Carlson, Jeffrey Kratz, general manager of AWS for the Latin American region, Canada and the Caribbean, also participated, highlighting the digitalization of the neighboring country."With the Government of Chile we work with the administration, with the ministries, to be able to create a variable cause situation, so it is possible to cross budget information, for example, and use citizens' money more efficiently," he explained. the executive, who immediately mentioned the Argentine case.
"We work with the Government to announce that 80% of the work of the next 10 years will be in the cloud, and also to help them understand what that means and modernize the sector."Facial recognition
An example of the services that AWS provides to its state clients was observed by iProUP at a breakfast hosted by Carlson to government and media officials from around the world in Las Vegas.
It is the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), which announced at that meeting the launch of a new global platform, called GMCNgine, which combines biometrics, artificial intelligence and digital advertising technology to help locate the children disappeared and kidnapped.
This initiative is the result of collaboration with Amazon Web Services, which provides facial biometrics from Amazon Rekognition, together with the Web-IQ, First Factory and Biometrica companies, which provide critical services.Geographic location and dynamic ad insertion are used to place missing children's alerts where and when they are most effective.
While automatic learning and AI models constantly scan the images on the web to find matches with photos of missing children to make it easier to find potential customers of child trafficking.
The 33 police and NGO groups that make up the ICMEC leadership have brought cases from 29 countries into the system.
"Our hope is that collaborative efforts like this will help provide critical mission resources and support to those in the front line, giving them faster access to better tools to protect children around the world," he said. Carlson