On August 29th, Google Cloud announced a new partnership with the government of El Salvador. This partnership aims to establish an office in the country and provide Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) services. In this article, we will delve into the details of this significant collaboration by Google Cloud in El Salvador.
El Salvador’s Digitalization Goal
The government of El Salvador seeks to digitalize the country, update government services, and improve healthcare and education systems. GDC, by bringing infrastructure to where data is generated, will support El Salvador’s digitalization ambitions.
The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, believes that El Salvador is rapidly becoming an “innovation hub.” He shared about the collaboration on social media, expressing his feelings with a smiling emoji.
“El Salvador is moving forward. We believe that technology and foreign investment are key to development.”
A Long-Term Collaboration
Pending full legal approval, the partnership will span seven years and assist the government in digitizing projects and processes such as billing, permits, and more. Google Cloud’s entry into El Salvador signifies that it will become the first government in Latin America to utilize cloud technology.
Cloud Technology and Transformation
Google Cloud’s CEO, Thomas Kurian, believes that cloud computing can truly transform Latin America.
“Cloud computing access has expanded significantly across industries and regions worldwide, enabling small companies and the public sector to use the same applications and services as more mature markets.”
The additional GDC infrastructure will aid El Salvador’s active stance toward Bitcoin. The infrastructure will provide support for Bitcoin full nodes and Ordinal Protocol in the country. Moreover, since 2021, Bitcoin has been accepted as legal tender.
Recently, the Bitcoin Beach initiative provided education about Bitcoin to over 25,000 students by entering classrooms and offered them the opportunity to earn a “Bitcoin diploma” through the country’s education system. The country has begun to witness immediate returns from the program, with a young adult who earned a diploma returning to their former school to educate educators about digital assets.
