Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 29 | Page 52

COUNTRY FOCUS: ITALY “ THE APPLICATION ALLOWS FRONTLINE STAFF TO GET IN CONTACT, VIA PHONE, WITH POSITIVE AND SUSPECTED POSITIVE CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS WHO HAVE BEEN DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL. Also in 2016, AWS acquired Asti-based company, NICE Software, a leading provider of software and services for high performance and technical computing, located in Piedmont. In 2017, an Edge location was opened in Palermo and in 2019, an AWS Direct Connect endpoint launched in Milan, helping customers establish a dedicated network connection from their premises to AWS. Later in 2019, AWS launched two additional Edge locations in Milan and one in Rome. These investments are in addition to the thousands of permanent jobs and over €4 billion of investment from Amazon, since 2010. Amazon.com CTO, Werner Vogels, said: “The global healthcare pandemic has been like nothing many of us in Europe have ever known. During this time, many organisations have been contemplating their role in the COVID-19 crisis and how they can best serve their communities. I can tell you it has been no different for us at Amazon Web Services (AWS). We are focused on where we can make the biggest difference to help the global communities in which we all live and work. This is why we are announcing that the AWS Europe (Milan) Region is now open. “The opening of the AWS (Milan) Region demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the people of Italy and the long-term potential we believe there is in the country.” Innovation success stories Vogels added: “In Italy, many organisations are leveraging AWS to tackle the challenges brought on by the pandemic, whether it is to empower scientific research, facilitate remote working and remote learning or providing new services to answer the emergency at hand. For example, in scientific research, Expert System, an Italian AWS Partner Network (APN) Independent Software Vendor (ISV), has built its Clinical Research Platform on AWS. “This platform aggregates information from various trusted sources of scientific content and news releases, providing scientists working in biomedical research across the globe with an efficient, onestop shop where they can discover the latest insights to drive their research. “In addition to research, there are thousands of education companies and institutes that have rapidly set up secure, scalable remote learning solutions so millions of students continue to get the education they deserve. “One example is bSmart Labs, an Italian digital education ISV that has used the Amazon Chime Software Development Kit (SDK) to quickly add video calling 52 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com