Teresa Carlson, VP, Worldwide Public Sector at AWS, talks with John Furrier at AWS Summit Bahrain. #AWSsummit #theCUBE #Bahrain https://siliconangle.com/2018/10/12/what-do-you-call-a-sweltering-hot-aws-cloud-startup-the-nation-of-bahrain-startupoftheweek/ What do you call a sweltering hot AWS cloud startup? The nation of Bahrain Cheap and easy cloud infrastructure has given legs to startups that could never have footed the bill for a classic data center. Can its affordability and low barriers to entry allow entire nations to remake their economies? Amazon Web Services Inc. is betting the answer is yes; it’s intensifying efforts to marshal cloud technology toward economic progress in less developed regions. It recently set up an outpost in the Kingdom of Bahrain — a collection of islands in the Arabian Gulf whose government is deliberately working to make the country a tech hub for the whole Middle East. The partnership gives new meaning to the phrase “data is the new oil.” While Bahrain was the first Middle Eastern country to strike oil, its reserves are quite modest compared to other nations in the region. The country’s people generally are working-class, “scrappy” types ready to roll up their sleeves and get their hands soiled, according to Teresa Carlson (pictured), vice president of the worldwide public sector at AWS. These fast-moving can-doers partnered swimmingly with agility hounds AWS over the time the two have collaborated on digitally transforming the country. “They took down blockers like crazy,” Carlson said. A major obstacle the country broke through was the economic structure of its telecommunications market. While Bahrain deregulated telecommunications over a decade ago, pricing models needed to be restructured even further to boost modern computing. In the old model, telecoms charged high prices for a relatively small number of transactions. In the new model — the kind that cloud demands — they charge a small amount of money for millions of transactions. This advancement, along with cloud-first policies in the government sector, tech-education initiatives, and venture-capital funds for startups are the tools Bahrain hopes will make it a technology beacon in the Middle East. Carlson spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the AWS Summit event in Bahrain. They discussed the working chemistry between AWS and Bahrain, and the nation’s eagerness to use cloud and technology to transform economically and socially. (* Disclosure below.) This week, theCUBE spotlights the nation of Bahrain in our Startup of the Week feature. Watch the complete video interview with Teresa Carlson below: