As the entire world was forced into their homes in 2020, the number of digital transactions increased to never-before-seen numbers; in Costa Rica alone, mobile money transfer transactions increased 700% (SUTEL, 2020), which represented 55 million transactions.

The recent chain of worldwide events, ultimately fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, has accelerated the digital journey of companies around the globe. How can we adapt and be better prepared for this uncertain and technologically disrupted future?  

As a country which exports 2x the OCDE countries ratio in services and delivers over 100 different business functions in more than 12 different languages around the globe, Costa Rica is a knowledge-intensive economy, ideal for the nearshoring of IT companies worldwide.  

• With the opening of its first office in San José, AWS strengthens customer relationships and supports the expansion of cloud computing in Costa Rica.
• AWS will invest in the local market by hiring highly trained engineers, network specialists, and account managers, among other roles.

San José, Costa Rica – February 25, 2021 –Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), a company of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced the opening of its new San José, Costa Rica office, to support the rapid adoption of cloud computing within Costa Rica.
 
Local AWS representatives will work to support organizations of all sizes, from startups to some of the oldest and most established companies in the nation, including those in the public sector, as more Costa Rican companies transition to the AWS cloud. As part of this expansion, AWS also plans to hire highly skilled professionals in sales, marketing, and technical engineering roles; these positions will be based in Costa Rica.
 
The new location will pull together a local group of account executives, solution architects, partner managers, support personnel, and other functions, so that customers can engage directly with AWS – in their local environment, in their native language. This openness is further evidence of AWS’s global growth and the company's continued investment in helping organizations migrate their movements and activities to the cloud. If you would like more information on working with AWS in Costa Rica, please visit https://aws.amazon.com/en/
 
When AWS first launched in Central America, Costa Rican organizations were among the first to adopt its cloud services. Established customers in Costa Rica are now using AWS to run everything from development and test environments to Big Data analytics – from mobile, web and social applications to enterprise-level applications and mission-critical workloads. Among its local clients, AWS now serves some of the best-known and fastest-growing companies in Costa Rica, including Banco LAFISE, Fujitsu, and Snap Finance.
 
“For AWS, Costa Rica is a key market in Central America, where companies rely on AWS to innovate and use the cloud to accelerate time-to-market and expand their businesses to reach customers locally and around the world, especially during these pandemic times,” explained Marcos Grilanda, AWS Regional Director. “The decision to open an AWS office in San José speaks to growing customer demand, the broad pool of talent located here, and the investments we are making to support the adoption of the cloud in Costa Rica. We are very excited to work with more Costa Rican companies and to help them drive innovation within their organizations while maintaining the industry's high standards for reliability, privacy, and security."
 
Andrés Valenciano, Minister of Foreign Trade, continued: “News of Amazon Web Services’ new Costa Rican location offers further proof that Costa Rican human capital is talented, resilient, and trained in professional areas of high demand for industry 4.0. In addition, it demonstrates that our country offers an optimal business climate for foreign companies seeking locations that enable an increase in efficiency, to carry out successful, safe, and innovative productive operations. As a government, we are committed to strengthening our country’s competitive advantages, so that more companies like AWS will choose us as their corporate home base for exporting quality services to the world.”
 
Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director of CINDE, stated: “We are proud to welcome AWS to Costa Rica. With the help of our local talent, AWS will contribute significantly to Costa Rica’s considerable cloud computing sector, which accounts for 54% of all industry 4.0 services that Costa Rica provides to the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as to other Latin American and European countries. As of September 2020, our exports on value-added services had reached $3.7 billion.”
 
Similarly, some clients and colleagues that have worked together with AWS in Costa Rica on AWS cloud adoption programs, highlighted the importance of the company's in-country offices and asserted that they will be of great benefit to Costa Rican companies.
 
Rodrigo Zamora, Executive Director of Grupo LAFISE, stated: “Our relationship with AWS has allowed us to innovate in a more agile and efficient way, bringing us closer to our clients and helping us provide better customer experiences. In 2020, more than 50% of our new clients were captured through digital channels, thanks to our digital onboarding process.”
 
Likewise, Alex Sánchez, Global Head of Cross-GDC Networks of Fujitsu stated: “For several years, Fujitsu has partnered with AWS to offer Costa Rican companies a leading hyperscale platform to host critical systems and drive business innovation. With the arrival of AWS in Costa Rica, we are able to continue in our mission to help more companies migrate to the cloud.”

• U.S. firm created a total of 19 new jobs in 2020, with plans to create a minimum of 15 more jobs in 2021.
• Company’s initial investment totals $2 Million.

Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica. February 24, 2021. Global technology and data analytics company Helm360 announced that it has chosen to set up operations in Costa Rica. The company formally launched its Costa Rican operations in 2020 and is expected to inaugurate its new support center in San Isidro de El General, in Pérez Zeledón, by the end of the year; this represents an initial investment of $2 million.