JERUSALEM: Alphabet’s Google on Thursday activated a local cloud region for Israel, offering cloud services to the country’s government and military that are expected to boost jobs and economic growth.
Israel signed an agreement with Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in May 2021 for a four-phase “Nimbus” project worth more than $1 billion.
As part of the plan, billions of shekels will be invested in local infrastructure, Israel’s Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Citing figures from Google, the ministry said the economic impact of the establishment of Google’s Israeli cloud region alone is expected to add $7.6 billion to Israel’s economy by 2030 and create more than 21,000 new jobs in the high-tech sector and others. Jobs that support cloud activity
AWS is also expected to enable Cloud Region during the first half of 2023, the ministry said.
It added that local cloud zones in Israel will allow the migration of critical government computing systems to the cloud, increase the efficiency of government services, reduce response times for the activation of digital services, and save on operating costs. .
As part of the agreement, Google and Amazon committed to mutual procurement and industrial cooperation in Israel equal to 20% of the contract value.
