EU Business News Q4 2018

22 EU BUSINESS NEWS / Q3 2018 , happiness, sadness, excitement, or others. This allowed us to build our own Music AI platform and revolutionize how our users find new music based on the emotions and mood of the lyrics of songs, instead of traditional suggestions based on simple audio genres.” Italian startups in the regulated financial services industry are also using AWS to increase agility and meet compliance needs as they grow their businesses. Since launching in 2015, Satispay, has been disrupting the mobile payment landscape, allowing users to securely send money or pay using a smartphone app. The service relies on International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) and removes all the intermediaries normally involved during a payment process, such as banks and credit or debit card networks, and instead directly connects consumers’ and merchants’ bank accounts. Satispay is all-in on AWS and benefits from AWS’s compliance accreditations and certifications, many of which are required to operate in the financial services industry. “An AWS Region in Italy is great news as it opens up endless opportunities for regulated financial services organizations in the country,” said Alberto Dalmasso, CEO & Co- Founder of Satispay. “When we realized we could use AWS and still be compliant with regulatory requirements, we migrated from our previous data center to the cloud immediately to enable faster development processes and to rely on a scalable infrastructure that can sustain our international expansion. Adopting DevOps and continuous development best practices, we went from one deployment per week to 16 deployments per day, giving us the freedom and flexibility to develop new features for our customers and innovate on their behalf. The global nature of the AWS cloud also allows us to meet legislation in whatever country we operate, such as the requirements of the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom. This ability to grow and iterate while still meeting local compliance requirements is a key advantage for us.” Italian-based AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners also welcomed the arrival of the AWS Europe (Milan) Region. The APN includes tens of thousands of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Systems Integrators (SIs) around the world. APN Partners build innovative solutions and services on AWS and the APN helps by providing business, technical, marketing, and go-to-market support. APN SIs working in Italy such as Accenture, BeSharp, Capgemini, Claranet, CloudReach, Deloitte, DXC, NTT Data, Sopra Steria, Storm Reply, Techedge, XPeppers and Zero12 help enterprise and public sector customers migrate to AWS, deploy mission-critical applications, and provide a full range of monitoring, automation, and management services for customers’ AWS environments. ISVs in Italy already using AWS to deliver their software to customers around the world include Avantune, Docebo, Doxee, Tagetik Software, and TeamSystem. Investing in Italy’s Future The new AWS Europe (Milan) Region continues AWS’s investment in Italy. As the number of Italian customers has grown, so has the size of AWS’s presence in the country. In 2012, AWS launched an infrastructure Point of Presence (PoP) in Milan, which now delivers Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Route 53, AWS Shield, and AWS WAF services to the country. This was followed in 2017 with a second PoP location in Palermo. In 2016, AWS acquired Asti-based NICE Software, a leading provider of software and services for high performance and technical computing. AWS also continues to build teams of account managers, solutions architects, business developers, partner managers, professional services consultants, technology evangelists, and start-up community developers in offices in Milan and Rome to help customers of all sizes move to AWS. AWS is continuing to invest in the upskilling of local developers, students, and the next generation of IT leaders in Italy with a number of programs. For Italian students, the AWS Educate program provides access to AWS services and content designed to build knowledge and skills in cloud computing. Dozens of Italian universities and business schools already participating in the program include Politecnico di Milano, Università di Bologna, Università di Bolzano, Università degli Studi di Milano, Università di Napoli Parthenope, Università La Sapienza di Roma, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, and Università di Salerno. Another program for higher education institutes is AWS Academy, which provides AWS-authorized courses for students to acquire in-demand cloud computing skills. In Italy, major institutions taking part include Politecnico di Bari and Università La Sapienza di Roma. AWS also offers a full range of training and certification programs to help those interested in the latest cloud computing technologies, best practices, and architectures to advance their technical skills and further support Italian organizations in their digital transformation. To help grow the next generation of Italian enterprises, AWS supports start-ups in cities across Italy, and in 2013, launched AWS Activate. This program gives start-ups access to guidance and one-on-one time with AWS experts as well as web-based training, self-paced labs, customer support, third-party offers, and up to $100,000 in AWS service credits – all at no charge. This is in addition to the work that AWS already does with the Venture Capital community, start-up accelerators, and incubators to help start-ups grow in the cloud. In Italy, AWS works with accelerator organizations such as H-Farm, Nana Bianca & PoliHub, and VC firms like United Ventures and P101 in order to support the rapid growth of their portfolio companies.