A company that was born in 2006 to offer on-demand technology consumer products has become the main provider of cloud services for many large companies in Spain. Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of the US giant founded by Jeff Bezos, has been chosen by BBVA to accelerate its digital transformation. Before, some of its more than 3,300 services were trusted by other large companies such as Iberdrola, Repsol, Mapfre…
The list is long. “We work for 75% of the Ibex 35”, says Miguel Álava, general director of the company in Spain. Also for SMEs, where a digital “democratization” is taking place. “We have tens of thousands of active clients in the Iberian Peninsula,” he adds. The philosophy: “Offer innovation in your business through technology.” The power of data, knowing how to exploit it so that businesses can scale. In other words, if a company wants to improve or launch its business in the digital field, with the AWS cloud it does so safely.
All these technological services have to be physically housed in one place. And that is where the jewel in the crown of Amazon Web Services in Spain comes into play. It is in a triangle located in Aragon, between the towns of Huesca, Villanueva de Gállego and El Burgo de Ebro, the latter two in Zaragoza. There are three armored data centers that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, inaugurated in November. This is what is known as a region.
Each of these ships has a different risk profile in the face of adverse natural phenomena or connection capacity, so that if one center goes into a spin, the other two can replace it. There, the demanded services, which are the property of the clients, are stored and distributed from there. The AWS centers are considered critical infrastructure for the country, which is why the President of the Government and the director of the CNI were present when the power button was pressed.
Amazon Web Services did not choose Aragón at random. “Our goal was to boost the economy of the area and add value to the local community,” explains the company’s CEO. And the future? “We want to continue deepening the driving capacity of data centers. The region is finished, but not complete, and we believe that it can continue to contribute much more to the economy and to society,” adds Álava.
Amazon Web Services believes that Spanish companies, despite the advances promoted by European funds, still have the capacity to optimize their costs. And the digital service provider wants to be in that challenge. “We try to save costs for our clients, a saving that can later be passed on to the final consumer.”
One of AWS’s challenges is the sustainability of its facilities. Data centers consume large amounts of energy and the company does not want to give up on the green transition. That is why the Amazon subsidiary is building its renewable plants, 18. “We have invested in 15 solar plants and three wind farms,” ??says the manager. “We are the largest purchaser of renewable energy in Spain, with an estimated future production of 1.55 gigawatts, which is the equivalent of the average energy of 850,000 homes.”
AWS has its own office in Barcelona. “For us, Catalonia is a very important area, with a multitude of clients with whom we work actively,” says Álava. From large companies to startups. In Barcelona, ??the technology company has also set up a “learning team” that works on the future of artificial intelligence, says the CEO. “We see it as a tremendous opportunity,” concludes the company executive.
