The Greek hub of the space economy

Amazon Web Services is collaborating with the Greek government on economic and technological initiatives aimed at transforming the country into a regional space hub. It is the first deal of its kind for the cloud computing giant, which is expanding its global presence in space “. With these remarks, one of the most authoritative specialized sites, Space News, welcomes the agreement of the Greek government with Amazon Web Services. The first and most important thing to keep in mind when reading the topic (“AWS agrees deal to expand Greece’s space industry with the cloud” by Jason Rainbow, August 2, 2021, Tampa Florida) is the choice of cooperation between the two sides to promote its economy Space. A relatively new concept, but very soon, in the coming years, will be part of the daily lives of citizens and more specifically of professionals and businesses.

Despite the information to the contrary, Jeff Bezos was not involved in the whole development of the agreement. The duo Adonis Georgiadis – Kyriakos Pierrakakis has built a strong channel of communication with the executives of Amazon Web Services that allows the attraction of investments from the technology giant that make a difference in the country.

A digital incubator

The agreement leading to the creation of a Regional Space Hub – a “digital incubator” that will encourage and strengthen research and business initiatives related to space policies – was signed by the Ministers of Development & Investment and Digital Development Adonis Georgiadis and Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Amazon CEO for Europe, Middle East and Africa Cameron Brooks. The operation of the node includes two sub-actions:

1) The creation of training and specialization programs for professionals in the field of aerospace.

2) The collection, development and distribution of space data sets.

In this way, Amazon will support the development of the Greek community of start-ups and technology industries, providing them with access to the AWS Activate program, which is already operational, incorporating hundreds of incubators, mentors and investment funds from around the world. The AWS Activate program will provide those involved with technical support, training, resources, as well as anything that can contribute to their further development.

Especially for the field of the educational process, Amazon will provide the cooperating educational institutions of Greece with a free teaching program related to cloud computing. Through these training initiatives, Amazon provides access to CloudU, a flexible and targeted training program for women, as well as the Cloud Career Pathways, which is aimed at young professionals. The initiative will provide access to more than 500 free and asynchronous seminars, workshops and digital apprenticeships through AWS Training and Certification.

Investment presence

The signing of this memorandum of cooperation is the latest development of Amazon’s investment presence in Greece. It is recalled that earlier in 2021 Amazon opened its first offices in Greece, while in 2020 it launched an Amazon CloudFront unit in Athens, enabling all organizations in the country to have access to faster content distribution and, above all, enhanced cyber security protection.

But, let’s look at the general context since it was an exceptional fortune for Greece to participate in the next day of the space economy.

Amazon subsidiary AWS announced on June 10, 2021 that it has selected 10 European and US space startups for a four-week acceleration program designed to enhance cloud computing and analytics capabilities.