This article was written by David Parker, Co-Chief Investment Officer - Financial Services, ICT, Startups, Overseas Offices of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, and the opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CNN.
After the outbreak of the new Corona virus "Covid 19" reached its peak in China with 14,000 cases in one day, the number of infected cases finally began to decline until the number of reported cases reached less than 1,000 patients in the first two weeks of March . According to the World Health Organization, modern technology, including big data analysis and artificial intelligence, has been central to China's containment of the crisis, a solution that has been cited by other governments around the world. Now, as the disease continues to spread globally, and especially in Europe, attention is turning to technological solutions with a strong focus on the critical role of cloud infrastructure in containing the crisis.
In addition, each recorded case opens up new horizons for linking facts to each other, which enables scientists to determine the places and source of the epidemic. And by collecting information about the whereabouts of patients, the effects of the disease on their health, what symptoms are and when they appear, data warehouses that rely on cloud computing technology have played an important role in enabling the health sector to quickly absorb the scope of infection and provided it with a clearer picture of the current conditions, as with more than 100,000 cases worldwide, the amount of information would be enormous.
03:10 This company tracks millions of devices around the world.. Can it help fight the Corona virus?
Scientists are currently concerned with the possibility of creating immediate forecasts to provide confirmed information about the possibility of an increase in cases and their locations, as the information is used to make the right decisions in various fields, such as providing the appropriate number of workers in hospitals. Speaking about the Spanish flu pandemic that countries suffered in the early twentieth century and more than 500 million people were affected, analyst Brian Hopkins of the "Forrester" research company said in an interview with the "Wall Street Journal" that progress in technology Digital information and data can help prevent similar outcomes with the spread of the coronavirus.
But processing this huge volume of information requires significant computing power, as well as a robust infrastructure capable of handling this responsibility. Cloud computing offers a strategic advantage by allowing users to perform complex tasks remotely on large servers instead of their own computers, which helps save cost and increase speed.
Fortunately, many major economies in the world have already recognized the value of this technology and are working in close partnership with service providers to facilitate the opening of large data centers, as is the case in Bahrain, which opened Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers last year for the first time. Middle East as the beginning of a formal commitment to the transformation of all government services into the digital world. According to a recent study, about 90% of companies around the world operate using cloud computing and those data centers are set to handle 94% of all workloads by next year.
Also, scientists and national teams are not the only ones using cloud computing in response to the crisis. Companies are now adopting a remote work system to avoid an outbreak of disease among employees, and millions of students are studying at home. And because the continuity of work and education is a must, the use of technology has increased for the purpose of communication and holding meetings.
There is no doubt that the Corona pandemic will change the way we work and our lifestyle forever, as that pandemic confirmed the importance of benefiting from technology, whether for scientific research, work continuity, or enabling students to study at their homes. As more companies and governments continue to adopt cloud computing, it is clear that modern infrastructure will have a powerful impact on our lives.
