Amazon Web Services (AWS), the number one cloud provider in the world and a subsidiary of Amazon.com, has expressed interest in bringing their services to Trinidad and Tobago.

A team from AWS held a meeting with Minister of Public Administration and Communications, Maxie Cuffie and his colleague, Minister of Trade and Industry, Paula Gopee-Scoon earlier today to present the benefits the Government of Trinidad and Tobago stand to gain from using Amazon’s public cloud services.

“Their visit here is very timely because the Government is in the process of developing a cloud policy. The Government is also going to the market for a solution for data processing and the evolution of the Gov Net platform,” said Cuffie via a release from the Ministry.

He noted that with AWS having only one data centre located in the Latin America/Caribbean region, among their 16 locations, they could consider Trinidad and Tobago as an ideal location to expand their services to the region. He told the AWS team there are tremendous opportunities for investment here.

Minister Gopee-Scoon described Trinidad and Tobago as “a powerhouse of opportunity.”

“There is a lot of business to do in Trinidad and Tobago and right now diversification is key in light of falling oil production and energy prices,” she said, explaining that ICT is particularly important to her Ministry because of the Single Electronic Window (SEW).

The AWS team is on a three-day visit to Trinidad. They have also expressed interest in providing cloud services to various educational institutions and the establishment of reseller and partner relationships with appropriate businesses and service providers on the island.

They visited Tamana InTech Park and met with officials of Invest TT. AWS Regional Sales Manager, Luis Ayala said having looked at TT Biz link “it is pretty amazing…from what we’ve seen in other countries it’s really interesting, it is far advanced…”

The Gartner Magic Quadrant report ranks AWS as the number one cloud provider and found that the amount of computing power AWS supplies customers is more than ten times that of the other top 14 cloud providers combined.

The meeting took place at the Ministry of Public Administration and Communications, NALIS building.