QATAR - Telecoms & IT
Country Manager, Google Cloud Qatar
Bio
Ghassan Kosta joined Google Cloud as Qatar Country Manager in 2021, with the objective of building the new Google Cloud region and helping make a difference for businesses in Qatar.
Before that, Ghassan worked for EMC and Dell Technologies for 15 years, based in Qatar. He brings strong market experience of managing successful teams and leading great revenue growth. Kosta graduated with a bachelor of engineering from Notre Dame University.
Google Cloud began establishing a physical presence in Qatar in 2019, and now three years into our journey in Qatar, we have been building up a diverse team of local and regional experts, especially with a full team that possesses industry-specific knowledge and expertise. We were able to also acquire talent of the highest quality in Qatar and the regional market so that we can help our customers and partners succeed in their business and digital transformation goals. There has been an increase in the interest and uptake of cloud adoption by businesses across all industries based on the growing awareness of its benefits. In addition, we work closely to support our customers who started the journey with Google Cloud to realize the importance of cloud adoption in their business transformation. Now, with cloud adoption picking up not only in Qatar but also regionally, there is a surge in the requirement for upscaling talent and cloud knowledge as skills. We are also launching a cloud region in Qatar, one of the first cloud regions in the Middle East that Google Cloud is going to be activating. Google Cloud is also keen to take the lead in building a digitally skilled workforce in Qatar. The main objective of the center of excellence that we opened virtually in June 2021 is to build digital skills for the future. The center will also serve as an incubator for high-potential start-ups, as a hub for research to address digital transformation challenges.
When it comes to digitalization, we must talk about Qatar National Vision 2030 to transform the country into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development and providing a high standard of living for its people. In order to achieve the vision, organizations should accelerate digital transformation to become more efficient and a catalyst moving toward a knowledge-based economy, as well as making investments in state-of-the-art ICT infrastructures. Scaling the e-government and its services is also fundamental. Those efforts will increasingly allow Qatar to position itself as one of the leading dynamic and fast-growing economies in the region. Qatar possesses significant economic potential if cloud technologies are fully leveraged. Qatar can unlock USD39 billion of economic impact in 2030 through supportive policies that enable the full utilization of digital technologies enabled by the cloud. On top of it, customers in Qatar will benefit from reliable performance, low latency, high security reliability, and fast infrastructure where they will run their data locally benefiting from a secure and sustainable infrastructure. When the cloud region in Qatar is active, it will be twice as energy efficient as an average enterprise data center and will be a touchpoint for the sustainability goals on the government’s agenda.
We have been on the ground in Qatar for several years and have established a strong presence. Google Cloud is supporting customers such as Sponix Tech, that will at have presence at the World Cup in Qatar, by leveraging services that every customer, partner, and citizen are using. The World Cup will be a key aspect for Qatar because most of the digitalization is happening in the build up to this milestone, and it is a revamp. There are many different commitments that will happen, and MCIT is being active to secure Qatar as a regional hub for the future. Every industry is going digital, and by 2023-2024 the world’s data is expected to increase by five times its current value. Google Cloud is present in Qatar because we are geared up to enable the much-anticipated digitalization boom.
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QATAR - Energy & Mining
Interview
VICE PRESIDENT – NORTHERN REGION (QATAR, IRAQ, KUWAIT, AND JORDAN), EMERSON AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS